Self-driving vehicles pass early road tests

Q I can hardly wait until virtually all cars are autonomous. They will make our roads much safer. – Bob Fifield, Aptos A Early reports are encouraging and drivers are coming around as 53 percent say they would buy an Autonomous Vehicle or AV. And while AAA’s nationwide survey reveals that 63 percent of U.S. drivers say they are afraid to ride in a fully self-driving vehicle, that’s a big decrease from 78 percent in early 2017. Q I live down the street from Waymo, whose self-driving cars pass my house constantly. Every time one these vehicles crashes, it’s big news. But in reality, what is their crash rate versus human beings? This is still a new technology and a lot of smart people are working on it. I expect it will improve greatly. – Jan Pfuhl, – Mountain View

AUniversity of Michigan transportation experts found that there were slightly more crashes involving AVs, but the blame was all on drivers of other cars and injuries were far less severe. It did warn that other drivers often do not know how to respond to autonomous vehicles and need more education on mixing in traffic with them.

The California DMV reports on the 56 collisions since 2016 that none were the fault of the self-driving vehicle. Here is a sample of some of the crashes:

• An AV was going north on Phyliss Avenue in Mountain View on a green light when it detected a car going west on El Camino Real about to run the red light. The AV began to slow but the two collided. No injuries were reported.

• An AV was traveling in the right lane on Mission Street between Plum Street and South Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco in stop-and-go traffic. The Cruise AV allowed a delivery van to merge into traffic from a gas station parking lot, then with a green light the AV proceeded forward. But a pedestrian walking against traffic entered the intersection and the AV stopped. A Mazda Protege rear-ended the AV.

• An AV was rear-ended while going through a green light on Bush Street at Montgomery Street in San Francisco. As the AV passed through the intersection, a pedestrian looking at his cellphone approached the crosswalk in front of the AV. The AV responded by decelerating and was rear-ended by a Toyota Corolla.

• An AV going south on Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View slowed to yield to westbound traffic on El Camino when a car behind it collided with the rear of the Google AV. Look for Gary Richards at Facebook/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow @mercurynews.com.