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It figures: A Human driver crashes Google’s robot controlled car

It turns out that Google should have just let the robot keep driving. In an ironic turn of events, one of Google’s self-driven automatic cars has gotten involved in what appears to be the project’s first accident. The irony? It was the human driving the car manually at the time that caused the crash.

The crash was spotted by a Jalopnik tipster and sent into the site after they took a shot of the car post-fender-bender near Google’s Mountain View headquarters earlier this week. The car, which is a Prius, apparently crunched into another Prius. There’s some sort of Prius joke there I think.

The car was apparently not in its automated mode at the time however. As a Google spokesperson told All Things D “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.”

So this one can’t be blamed on robot rage and instead on the fallible meat sack driving the car at the time. Google’s self-driving car program is under active testing in California, where no laws ban robot drivers, and Nevada, where Google got the state to issue special licenses for automated cars.

The Google rep said that the automatic driving program had racked up 160,000 miles with no incedent prior to a human getting its hands on the wheel. Looks like our future robot overlords will be conscientious drivers at the very least.

About the Author

Matthew Panzarino is the West Coast editor of TNW. Matthew brings 20 years of computing experience and mobile tech obsession to delivering the latest and greatest tech news and views. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at matthew@thenextweb.com

Discussion

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Sardar Mohkim Khan 6 pts

And yet they complain about Google being a screwup...

KickingRobots 5 pts

So the robot wasn't driving?

Maybe that's just what the robot wants you to think.

Conversation from Facebook

Ade Lack
Ade Lack

I wonder what Karl Smith would make of this???

Amalia Agathou
Amalia Agathou

and that's why it's called a human error

Vinay Sarawagi
Vinay Sarawagi

thanks Robi :)

Vinay Sarawagi
Vinay Sarawagi

To err is human, to not is google ;)

Mark Chidlow
Mark Chidlow

it wasn't Rowan Atkinson was it?

Tess Curle Taylor
Tess Curle Taylor

leave it to a stupid human!

Teo Hernandez
Teo Hernandez

haha..., or don't let robots text while driving as well

Laney DeJesus
Laney DeJesus

I can believe it! I hope it wasn't texting that caused the accident!

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  1. [...] than people. “It turns out that Google should have just let the robot keep driving,” commented The Next Web’s Matthew Panzarino. Even after Google’s statement, Jalopnik remains [...]

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  3. [...] than people. "It turns out that Google should have just let the robot keep driving," commented The Next Web's Matthew Panzarino. Even after Google's statement, Jalopnik remains [...]

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