Another Google self-driving car was rear-ended in Mountain View this week, bringing to 13 the number of accidents since the cars began testing on public roads several year ago.
That s following a similar fender-bender last week that Google co-founder and self-driving enthusiast Sergey Brin revealed during the company s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.
We just got rear-ended again yesterday (Thursday) while stopped at a stoplight in Mountain View, wrote Google spokeswoman Jacquelyn Miller in an emailed statement Friday. That s two incidents just in the last week where a driver rear-ended us while we were completely stopped at a light! So that brings the tally to 13 minor fender-benders in more than 1.8 million miles of autonomous and manual driving — and still, not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident.
Miller also revealed that the company has created a new website about the cars, which will be updated monthly with reports such as this one from May.
Chris Urmson, the head of Google s self-driving car project, had said several weeks ago that his team would soon begin putting up monthly progress, and accident, reports. Responding to criticism at the shareholder meeting this week from consumer advocate and frequent Google critics John Simpson, Brin also said the company would be willing to share more accident summaries, but not the more detailed reports it is required to submit to the California DMV.
Above: Google s fleet of Lexus SUVs, outfitted with self-driving software, have been testing on Mountain View roads for years. The company also plans to unleash its two-seater prototype on the city s streets this summer. (Photo sent from Google to Associated Press last spring)
