One of Google’s driverless cars has been involved in a heavy collision in California, resulting in an autonomous Lexus RX 450 being broadsided by a van.
The accident took place in Mountain View, California, and was caused by a van running a red light. According to a statement issued by 9to5Google, the autonomous Lexus had started to drive on a green light – which was green for at least six seconds – before being broadsided by a van.
#SelfDriving Google car involved in crash in #MountainView. #Google tells us the other vehicle ran a red light. Photo by @grommet. pic.twitter.com/Wwu5MYGPDJ
— Katie Marzullo (@KatieABC7) September 24, 2016
On spotting the driverless vehicle, after running a red light, the van driver slammed on the brakes, but was not quick enough to bring the car to a stop. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident.
This isn’t the first time a Google-branded driverless vehicle has been involved in a collision. In early 2016 one of them collided with a bus at low speed when attempting to drive around a sandbag in the road.
The important factor in this recent incident however is that the autonomous vehicle did not cause the accident. In its statement, Google went on to stress how significant human error is in road collisions, stating that red light running was the lead cause of crashes in urban areas.
