Google: Self-driving car was involved in 11 collisions

Google’s self-driving cars have been involved in an accident 11 times. Google itself has announced this. In none of those cases was the self-driving car itself to blame, the search giant claims, but fellow road users made a mistake.

Google released the figures after the AP news agency reported on Monday that the self-driving cars had caused four accidents. Whether the AP’s reporting conflicts with Google’s official figures is unclear: Google also includes accidents that happened while a human driver had taken control of the vehicle in the eleven accidents. The company does not report how many accidents happened while the autopilot was steering.

According to Google, there were 11 ‘minor’ accidents with only body damage, which happened during 2.7 million kilometers of road traffic over six years of testing. The autopilot drove 1.6 million kilometers of that.

In the 11 accidents, other cars hit the self-driving vehicles from behind seven times, mainly at traffic lights, but also on the highway. Self-driving cars were also hit from the side and a fellow road user who ignored a stop sign caused a collision. Most accidents – eight out of eleven – took place in built-up areas.

The statistics that Google collected on the behavior of road users with the self-driving cars show that many people do not pay attention to the road. The company has noticed road users reading books and in one case someone even played a trumpet. According to Google, it often happens that road users end up on the wrong side of the road. Finally, many people ignore red traffic lights, according to the company. That is reason for Google to build in a short waiting time after the traffic lights go green, to prevent a collision with another car that has just passed a red light.