Here's Footage Of A Self-Driving Google Car Crashing Into A Bus

This isn’t the first time a Google self-driving car has been involved in a crash, but significantly it is the first time it has admitted fault. So far, it’s always been caused by a human driver crashing into the Google car, but as you can see here, this one comes down to the Google car misinterpreting the road.

You can read Google’s in-depth review of the incident on The Verge, but the general gist of it is that the Google car wanted to turn right, but found its path blocked by sandbags. It indicated left to drive around them, and thought the bus was slowing to let it out. It wasn’t, and the Google car found itself in the way. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but Google’s Lexus did suffer some minor damage to its front bumper.

This is proof that even a highly intelligent robot can’t predict other humans’ behaviour every single time, so teaching its cars to better interpret other road users will be key to Google creating autonomous cars that can co-exist with human drivers.

Sources: Jalopnik and The Verge