Google rolling out site to report driverless-car accidents
Human drivers hit vehicles, official says
Google will begin reporting incidents encountered by its driverless-car program on a website, the search company said Friday.
Google self-driving cars have been involved in accidents during years of testing on the streets of the company’s Silicon Valley hometown of Mountain View, Calif.
The website represents a reversal of a stance taken by Google co-founder Sergey Brin on Wednesday at a shareholders’ meeting, where he defended the company’s decision not to reveal accident details to protect the humans at fault.
Though nothing “can be perfect, our goal is to beat human drivers,” he said.
In addition to detailing any accidents (with human-driver details redacted), the site will give examples of how the cars, which by law are accompanied by a Google driver, adapt to everyday traffic situations, and it will provide a forum for community feedback.
Google is to begin testing its pod-like driverless cars on city streets this summer, while continuing to gather data and other metrics through its fleet of heavily modified Lexus SUVs.
After nearly six years of testing and 1.8 million miles driven, the Google fleet has been involved in 13 accidents, according to reports that the company submitted to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
In a recent blog post, Google self-driving car project leader Chris Urmson noted all of the accidents were the fault of other drivers and not the overly cautious driverless cars.
A number of the incidents involved motorists rear-ending the Google cars at stop lights.
“Rear-end crashes are the most frequent accidents in America, and often there’s little the driver in front can do to avoid getting hit,” Urmson wrote. “We’ve been hit from behind seven times, mainly at traffic lights, but also on the freeway.
“We’ve also been sideswiped a couple of times and hit by a car rolling through a stop sign.”
Though nothing “can be perfect, our goal is to beat human drivers.”
Google co-founder Sergey Brin