Newly released images show the damage suffered after Google's self-driving car collided with a bus. (Photo : YouTube/Associated Press)
Dashboard footage from a bus shows how one of Google's self-driving cars collided with it.
Google has been testing its driverless vehicles for almost two years. Athough its vehicles may have been hit by human drivers, Google never deemed its software responsible for any collisions, until now.
In an incident that took place on Valentine's Day, one of Google's self-driving vehicles had a collision with a bus. The bus was driving at a speed of around 15 miles per hour and was hit on its right side, as new dashboard footage of the collisions shows.
Neither the driver of the bus, its 16 passengers, nor the Google employee in the self-driving car were injured. However, there was some damage to the self-driving car and the bus itself.
The Google-owned Lexus suffered slight crumpling to its left side and it also flattened the vehicle's tire and ripped-off one of its sensors, while the bus suffered a long scratch on its side, according to images released by the Santa Clara Valley Transport Authority. Google did not reveal how much repairs to its car cost but the damage to the bus was estimated to be around $2000-3000.
The transit authority said that the bus driver was not to blame but an independent claims adjustor has not yet determined liability. Google, on the other hand, has released a statement acknowledging the actions of its vehicle.
"This is a classic example of the negotiation that's a normal part of driving - we're all trying to predict each other's movements. In this case, we clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn't moved there wouldn't have been a collision," said Google, as reported by The Guardian.
Although the collision was not major and no one was harmed, the incident has caused further concerns from those already wary of the safety issues surrounding driverless cars. Some drivers and pedestrians fear that if the software goes wrong or makes an incorrect prediction, there could be more serious harm done.
Google also says that it has tweaked the software since to void incidents like this from happening in future.
