- Toyota Prius crashed near Google HQ in Mountain View
- Firm said it was caused by a human driver at controls
- Witnesses report five-car pile-up on California road
By Mark Duell
Last updated at 10:10 AM on 8th August 2011
Perhaps it just shows that robots can often do a much better job than us.
After Google's robot-controlled cars travelled 160,000 miles without a hitch, it was always going to be a human that caused the first crash.
A Google self-driving prototype Toyota Prius went into another vehicle near the firm's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Oops: A Google self-driving prototype Toyota Prius has crashed into another vehicle near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California
But the technology giant said the crash was the fault of a human at the car's controls, with witnesses claiming it caused a five-car pile-up.
Google has been testing out the cars in California and Nevada and this was the first time one has had an accident.
The autonomous Prius was in a five-car pile-up bizarrely with two other Prius cars and two Honda Accord vehicles, reported Jalopnik.
Google's car rear-ended another Prius that hit a Honda Accord, which struck another Accord that hit another Prius, witnesses said.
It's not yet proven that a human was driving but experts say the car's sensors, cameras and lasers would have avoided a collision.
Company response: The technology giant said the crash was the fault of a human at the car's controls, with witnesses claiming it caused a five-car pile-up
However the crash could have been caused by a bug in the computer software, which does all the work while humans ride in the car.
'Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car'
Google spokesman
'Safety is our top priority,' a Google spokesman told Business Insider.
'One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car.'
Tiffany Winkelman, whose brother was involved in the pile-up, told NBC Bay Area an ambulance was in traffic behind the accident.
Mountain View Police Department have not yet commented.
Picture courtesy of Jalopnik.
08 Aug, 2011--
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2023072/Googles-robot-controlled-cars-suffer-crash-160k-miles-HUMANs-fault.html?ITO=1490
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