Google first debuted its self-driving car project back in 2010 and has come quite a long way since its inception. The company’s self-driving cars have come a long way since then, now with the ability to share the road with cyclists, and to also detect the lights of emergency vehicles, thus being able to give way to them. While, the Mountain View company is no stranger to accidents involving its fleet of autonomous vehicle, with quite a number of accidents having occurred in the past few years, one of the cars in its fleet has gotten into quite a major accident this time around. It should be noted that Google’s fleet of self-driving cars are rarely at fault when it comes to accidents involving them.
One of Google’s self-driving Lexus has recently gotten into an accident involving a commercial van. From what has been gathered so far, it seems like the van was at fault. This accidents also appears to be one of the worst accidents a Google self-driving has gotten into. If you take a look at the image from Twitter user Ron van Zuylen, which has been inserted at the end of this article, you can see that the right hand side of the car has been badly crumpled. In the background of the image, a commercial van can be seen being loaded on to a truck, and it can also be seen that the van has sustained some damage to its bumper. The location of the crash was at Mountain View, California, at the corner of W El Camino and Calderon Ave.
According to witnesses at the scene, dazed Google employees could be seen sitting around after the incident, waiting for their tow truck. The witnesses also mentioned that the Google self-driving car was not at fault based from their perspective, and it was entirely the van’s fault. Google has not responded to the accident yet, and it is unlikely to do so anytime soon. Instead, it is more likely that Google will detail this incident in its monthly self-driving car report which will be probably be released in the beginning of October.