New York technophiles may be interested to learn that, on July 1, Google’s self-driving vehicle was involved in an accident. The company stated that the rear-end collision was caused by a human driver and not by the vehicle itself.
According to the head of the company’s self-driving car program, the self-driving Lexus was sitting at an intersection in California. The light at the intersection was reportedly green but the vehicle would have blocked traffic had it moved forward. Two other vehicles were also reportedly ahead of the Google car. A driver that was coming up to the intersection reportedly did not notice the congestion and did not stop. The driver collided with the back end of the self-driving car without braking. An employee was sitting behind the wheel of the vehicle.
The program head also noted that other drivers had caused accidents with the vehicle 14 times since the commencement of the project in 2009. The self-driving vehicle was reportedly not the cause of any of those accidents. However, it was noted that a pair of self-driving vehicles almost became involved in an accident with each other in June, though the vehicles managed to avoid it.
No matter how minor car accidents may seem, there is the possibility that any vehicle occupants could suffer serious injuries. A victim may want to discuss with an attorney the advisability of filing a personal injury claim against the responsible driver in order to recover compensation for certain damages that were sustained, including the cost of medical treatment, physical and mental pain and lost income.
Source: CNN, “Injuries in Google self-driving car accident“, July 17, 2015