California DMV Report Attributes ALL Google Car Wrecks To Software Programming

Driverless cars are designed to cut down on traffic accidents, but that hasn’t stopped human-driven cars from crashing into them anyways.

The California DMV just published all of its driverless car accident reports online—low-speed, minor fender-benders, with human error to blame. But there is a common thread besides human dumbassedness in the reports: Driverless cars can be overly cautious.

In traffic conditions where people are used to more aggressive traffic, the clash in driving styles could create conditions for fender-benders like these. And these accident reports highlight how that can happen. In an April 2015 report, a driver bumped into an automated Google car after the driverless car came to a stop while “creeping forward” on a right turn, because it detected another vehicle near the intersection.

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TheSteve - 10/9/2015 11:05:43 PM

+2 Boost

What a skewed article! Blaming these autonomous cars for "overly cautious programming" is like blaming a human driver for "driving too carefully" and therefore causing an accident. That's just plain laughable. Next we'll be blaming people for being "too healthy" and thereby making others sick, or we'll blame drivers who obey speed limits as causing accidents.

Translated into plain English: It appears these autonomous vehicle exercise greater prudence and are most risk-averse than average human drivers, but because human drivers expect others to drive as poorly as they do, the humans end up causing the accidents. It's that simple.

Bottom line: So far, it appears to be the humans' fault. I'm not surprised by the all-too-human externalization of blame and lack of accountability.

(PS: I'm not a fan of autonomous cars, but please let's call a spade a spade)