Google’s self-driving prototypes almost collide

Google is always developing, always innovating. Every day, the company comes up with new ideas to make life easier and progress further in Science. Its driverless car project is one such project, if completed successfully; it can revolutionize the way people commute. The amalgamation of transportation and computers promises to have huge potential. Google has come very far in this project and is in the testing phase. Recently during a trial, two self-driving prototype cars, one operated by Google Inc. and the other by Delphi automotive Plc., had a close call and were about to collide with each other. Although no collision happened, it did send a warning sign to the developers indicating that there was something wrong. Generally, there has been no report of such cases in the previous tests, and this is the first time something like this happened involving automatic vehicles. The incident occurred on San Antonio Road in Palo Alto. John Absmeier, director of Delphi’s Silicon Valley lab and global business director for the company’s automated driving program, was present in one of the cars at the time of this incident.

Absmeier said,” As the Delphi vehicle prepared to change lanes, a Google self-driving prototype—a Lexus RX400h crossover fitted with similar hardware and software—cut off the Audi, forcing it to abort the lane change. “He was in the prototype Audi Q5 crossover vehicle which was equipped with lasers, radar, cameras and special computer software designed to enable the vehicle to drive itself. A person can also sit behind the steering as a backup, should something go wrong.“

Delphi operates from its Silicon Valley lab which is based in Mountain View. It is not far from the Google headquarters. While Delphi is running two Audi prototypes in California, Google has been testing more than 20 Lexus vehicles. A few minor incidents of collision have been reported before but while being operated by people. The California Department of Moto Vehicles pointed out that in all the cases, the self-driving prototype was not at fault.

Source of Image used in this article: Becky Stern / Flickr