Search engine giant Google Inc, which is currently testing its self driving cars, acknowledged that it has been in 11 minor traffic accidents. The accidents happened since it began the experiment with the technology six years back. The figure was released by the company on May 11, 2015 after reports revealed that Google notified California about three collisions since September 2014.
Reporting of accidents had become a legal requirement and a part of the permits for tests on public roads. The director of the self driving car project mentioned that all the collisions reported were minor with light damage and no injuries. The accidents happened after 1.7 million miles of testing and included about 1 million miles in self driving mode.
Chris Urmson of Google said, “Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident”. There were certain incidences which were not mentioned by the search engine and such cases of non transparency was criticised. Critics say that the public should be able to monitor the rollout of a technology.
Privacy Project director of the non profit Consumer Watchdog John Simpson has noted that the ultimate goal of Google is to rollout a car which does not have a steering or pedals. There are five other companies who also have testing permits but have not reported any accidents so far.
Photo Credits: telegraph
