Google acknowledges 11 accidents with its self-driving cars
May 11, 8:46 PM EDT
Google acknowledges 11 accidents with its self-driving
cars
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Google Inc. revealed Monday that its
self-driving cars have been in 11 minor traffic accidents since it began
experimenting with the technology six years ago.
The company released the number after The Associated
Press reported that Google had notified California of three collisions
involving its self-driving cars since September, when reporting all accidents
became a legal requirement as part of the permits for the tests on public
roads.
The director of Google's self-driving car project wrote
in a web post that all 11 accidents were minor - "light damage, no
injuries" - and happened over 1.7 million miles of testing, including
nearly 1 million miles in self-driving mode.
"Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the
accident," wrote Google's Chris Urmson.
"Cause" is a key word: Like Delphi Automotive,
a parts supplier which suffered an accident in October with one of its two test
cars, Google says it was not at fault.
Delphi sent AP an accident report showing its car was
hit, but Google has not made public any records, so both enthusiasts and
critics of the emerging technology have only the company's word on what
happened. The California Department of Motor Vehicles said it could not release
details from accident reports.
This lack of transparency troubles critics who want the
public to be able to monitor the rollout of a technology that its own
developers acknowledge remains imperfect.
John Simpson, privacy project director of the nonprofit
Consumer Watchdog, notes that Google's ultimate goal is a car without a
steering wheel or pedals. This could prevent a person from taking over if a car
loses control, making it "even more important that the details of any
accidents be made public - so people know what the heck's going on."
Delphi's accident report shows that the front of its 2014
Audi SQ5 was moderately damaged when it was broadsided by another car while
waiting to make a left turn. Delphi's car was not in self-driving mode at the
time, company spokeswoman Kristen Kinley said.
Five other companies with testing permits told the AP
they had no accidents. In all, 48 cars are licensed to test on state roads.
That left Google, which has outfitted 23 Lexus SUVs with
driverless technology. Asked last week whether its cars suffered the other
three accidents, it acknowledged "a handful of minor fender-benders, light
damage, no injuries, so far caused by human error and inattention."
On Monday, Urmson posted a more complete accounting
online, going back to the program's origins in 2009.
The Google cars have been rear-ended seven times, often
when stopped "but also on the freeway," wrote Urmson, director of
Google's self-driving car program. In other collisions, the cars were
side-swiped or "hit by a car rolling through a stop sign." Eight of
the 11 collisions were on city streets.
He also described instances in which Google's cars
avoided hitting other cars or bicyclists as they drove on streets near the
company's Silicon Valley headquarters.
Nevada, Michigan and Florida have passed laws welcoming
tests of self-driving cars onto their roads. Their regulators told AP they
weren't aware of any reports.
California's regulators provided the total - four
accidents since September - but would not comment about their nature or
severity, citing a longstanding state law making collision reports
confidential.
Some details, however, were revealed to the AP by a
person familiar with these reports: Two of the accidents happened while the
cars were in self-driving mode. In the other two, the person required to be
behind the wheel was in control.
All four happened when the test car was moving at speeds
of less than 10 mph, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity for
lack of authorization to discuss the reports publicly.
A chief selling point for self-driving cars is safety.
Their cameras, radar and laser sensors provide a far more
detailed understanding of their surroundings than humans have. Reaction times
should be faster. Cars could be programmed to adjust if they sense a crash coming
- move a few feet, tighten seat belts, honk the horn or flash lights at a
distracted driver.
The top priority so far is not avoiding fender benders,
but teaching them to avoid causing a serious accident that could set back
acceptance of the technology for years, said Raj Rajkumar, a pioneer of the
technology with Carnegie Mellon University.
The national rate for reported "property-damage-only
crashes" is about 0.3 per 100,000 miles driven, according to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Google's 11 accidents over 1.7 million miles would work
out to 0.6 per 100,000, but as company officials noted, as many as 5 million
minor accidents are not reported to authorities each year - so it is hard to
gauge how typical this is.
"Even when our software and sensors can detect a
sticky situation and take action earlier and faster than an alert human driver,
sometimes we won't be able to overcome the realities of speed and
distance," Google's Urmson wrote. "Sometimes we'll get hit just
waiting for a light to change."
Contact Justin Pritchard at
http://twitter.com/lalanewsman .
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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