None of the unmanned vehicles got into an accident because of their own fault.

Of the 50 unmanned vehicles that run on the roads of California since September last year, only four of them were involved in an accident. Three Lexus SUVs are owned by Google, the fourth car was developed by Delphi car company. The search giant did not disclose the details of the incidents with its cars, but Delphi speaker Kristen Kinley told how it was. While turning left, another car crashed into the side of the Audi SQ5, which resulted in moderate damage to both cars, which people were driving at the time. Both Google and Delphi say that all 4 cases of accidents involving their unmanned vehicles were caused by other drivers.

Permission to test robokars in “combat conditions” was issued at the end of September last year by Google, Mercedes and Audi, and Delphi joined them a little later. An indispensable condition for official permission was the condition that an engineer-driver should be in the cab of the car, who in the event of an emergency should take control. Any incidents during testing should be reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which refuses to comment on any information on this matter. However, a certain source in this department, on condition of anonymity, told the New York Times that in two out of four cases of accidents, the vehicles were in a state of autonomous control at a speed of about 10 miles per hour (about 16 km / h).

Google, with its reputation as a high-tech company, is heard by many critics. For example, the head of the Consumer Watchdog organization, journalist and lawyer John Simpson, who calls himself a consumer advocate in the information age, believes that Google’s intention to produce a robocar without steering and pedals at all is a serious security challenge not only for the owner of such a machine, but also for the people around him. (Simpson became known after he filed a lawsuit against Google, protesting against automatically scanning the contents of Gmail mail; he also said that the US Congress should protect Americans from too much attention of the owners of Google Glass).

In response to this, the cornerstone of unmanned cars is called security, which is provided by a large number of built-in cameras, radar and sensors, and appropriate software. Together they can provide such a speed of reaction to the problems that have arisen, for which a person is simply incapable.