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Google Self Driving Car - Prototype on the road 2015

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I live near Google and see their self driving cars all the time. They have been doing more and more testing recently. I saw one recent case where a lane was blocked with pylons due to construction and it looked like the self driving computer didn't realize that it was OK to use the other lane that had pylons on the line... The car just stopped and waited for a tech to reprogram something. I suspect that they have all the normal driving scenarios worked out well, but are still 'tweaking' for unusual exceptions.
 
I also see the Google modified Prius and Lexus self-driving cars occasionally on the roads.

As I understand it, this Google self-driving EV is limited to 25mph so expect it to be limited to urban streets. Given its limitations, I don't see a big market for this particular car but of course it will improve over time. I can understand how autonomous vehicles are consistent with Google's company mission statement which is: "Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google knows road information in great detail. Knowing that information makes it possible for a "robotic" car to drive itself and therefore that information becomes more "universally accessible and useful" because it enables disabled people and people who cannot legally drive for whatever reason (and even legally intoxicated people) to have access to personal transport that they otherwise would not be able to use or take advantage of on their own. So I suppose that Google has decided to build their own autonomous vehicle to demonstrate to the car manufacturers of the world that it can be done, and should be done. I do not expect Google to become a major automobile manufacturer.
 
In my area, Google has been expanding "Google shopping express" dramatically. I think the self driving cars could make sense for these kind of neighborhood delivery vehicles. (Just need a little robot cart to move the goods up to your doorstep.)

Also, those Streetview cars just drive around a pre-defined route to take video of all the neighborhoods. Another case where a short range self driving vehicle makes a lot of sense.

(Mention of "big brother" taking control left for another day.)
 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3130173/California-reveals-details-self-driving-car-accidents.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

GOOGLE'S ACCIDENT REPORTS IN FULL

For this first report, we're including summaries of all accidents since the start of our project in 2009. In future monthly reports, we will provide info on accidents in that month.)

2010
May: ​A Google Prius model autonomous vehicle (AV) operating in manual mode was involved in an accident on Central Expressway in Mountain View, CA. The Google AV was stopped at a traffic light at Ferguson Drive and was rear-ended by another vehicle. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.

2011
August: ​A Google Prius model AV operating in manual mode was involved in an accident on Charleston Road in Mountain View, CA. An employee operating the Google AV to run an errand (i.e., he was not using the vehicle to test our autonomous technology) rear-ended a vehicle that was stopped in traffic. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.

2012
October:​A Google Prius model AV operating in autonomous mode was involved in an accident on Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View. The Google AV was stopped at a traffic light and was rear-ended by another vehicle. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.
December:​A Google Lexus model AV operating in manual mode was involved in an accident while driving on Highway 101S in Mountain View near the Moffett exit. The Google AV was driving past a disabled vehicle and emergency vehicles, which were stationary on the shoulder, when it was rear-ended by another vehicle traveling at approximately 20-25 MPH. No injuries were reported at the scene. The rear of the Google AV sustained some damage.

2013
March:​A Google Lexus model AV operating in autonomous mode was involved in an accident while driving on highway 680S in San Jose. The Google AV was driving at 63 MPH when another vehicle traveling in the adjacent right hand lane veered into the side of the Google AV. At the time of impact, the test driver took immediate manual control of the Google AV via the steering wheel. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.
October: ​A Google Lexus model AV operating in manual mode on Rengstorff Avenue in Mountain View was involved in an accident. The Google AV was traveling at 2 MPH, gradually slowing to a stop at an intersection, when it was rear-ended by another vehicle. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.

2014
March: ​A Google Lexus model AV operating in autonomous mode traveling on Highway 101N near Belmont was involved in an accident. The Google AV was stopped in traffic when it was rear-ended by another vehicle. The vehicle that struck the Google AV was initially hit from behind by another vehicle. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.

July: ​A Google Lexus model AV operating in manual mode was involved in an accident on Phyllis Avenue in Mountain View. The Google AV was stopped on Phyllis Avenue waiting to make a right turn onto Grant Avenue when another vehicle struck the rear bumper of the Google AV. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.

2015
February​: A Google Lexus model AV was travelling northbound on El Camino Real in autonomous mode when another vehicle travelling westbound on View Street failed to come to a stop at the stop sign at the intersection of El Camino and View Street. The other vehicle rolled through the stop sign and struck the right rear quarter panel and right rear wheel of the Google AV. Prior to the collision, the Google AV's autonomous technology began applying the brakes in response to its detection of the other vehicle's speed and trajectory. Just before the collision, the driver of the Google AV disengaged autonomous mode and took manual control of the vehicle in response to the application of the brakes by the Google AV's autonomous technology. The Google AV was in manual mode. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage.

April:​A Google Lexus model AV was involved in an accident in Mountain View while travelling northbound on Castro St and making a right turn onto El Camino eastbound. The car was operating in autonomous mode at the time of the accident. The Google AV was travelling northbound in the rightmost lane of Castro St and came to a complete stop for a red light at the intersection of Castro St and El Camino Real. The Google AV then proceeded to make a right turn on red by creeping forward to obtain a better field of view of cross traffic on El Camino Real approaching from the left. While creeping forward, the Google AV detected a vehicle approaching eastbound on El Camino Real and came to a stop in order to yield to the approaching vehicle. The Google AV was just starting to move (<1 MPH) when the vehicle following immediately behind it, which was also attempting to make a right turn onto El Camino Real, failed to brake sufficiently and struck the Google AV's bumper at approximately 5 MPH. All occupants of both vehicles involved were uninjured in the collision. The Google AV sustained minimal body damage and the other vehicle sustained no visible body damage.

April: ​A Google Lexus model AV was stopped for a red light at an intersection of California Street and Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View when another vehicle tried to pass from behind on the right side of the Google AV. The driver of the other vehicle slightly brushed one of the sensors on the Lexus AV with its driver side mirror. The Google AV was in autonomous mode. No injuries were reported at the scene, and there was no damage to either the sensor or either vehicles.

May: ​A Google Lexus model AV was travelling southbound on Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View in autonomous mode and was stopped behind traffic at a red light at the intersection of Shoreline Boulevard and El Camino Real. A vehicle approaching from behind collided with the rear bumper and sensor of the Google AV. The approximate speed of the other vehicle at the time of impact was 1 MPH. There were no injuries reported at the scene by either party. The Google AV sustained minor damage to its rear sensor and bumper. There was no visible damage to the other vehicle.

 
2015
February​: A Google Lexus model AV was travelling northbound on El Camino Real in autonomous mode when another vehicle travelling westbound on View Street failed to come to a stop at the stop sign at the intersection of El Camino and View Street. The other vehicle rolled through the stop sign and struck the right rear quarter panel and right rear wheel of the Google AV. Prior to the collision, the Google AV's autonomous technology began applying the brakes in response to its detection of the other vehicle's speed and trajectory. Just before the collision, the driver of the Google AV disengaged autonomous mode and took manual control of the vehicle in response to the application of the brakes by the Google AV's autonomous technology. The Google AV was in manual mode. No injuries were reported at the scene. The Google AV sustained some damage...

Of all the incidents mentioned this one seems like the only one were the autonomous driving hardware had something to do with it.
It sounds like someone tried to roll a stop and cut in right behind the self-driving vehicle, but the self-driving decided something unsafe was happening and applied the brakes in response which basically didn't give the guy behind time to react. The engineer watching the event sensed something wasn't right and tried to take manual control but apparently not quickly enough. Perhaps they are still working on fine tuning the driving system on how it should react to people doing unsafe things around the autonomous vehicle.
 
Looks like humans caused most of the accidents, distracted by the funny looking thing on the roof.
la-fi-google-car-accidents-20150618-001.jpeg
 
I for one don't want that spinning radar on top of my self-driving car.

Along with the 'gumpdrop' being ugly, I think it is very expensive.
I don't think they ultimately want to keep using it either. I think new cars are trying to make do with some new sensors that could be mounted in the mirrors or light clusters so that they can better integrate the system in a production version. Telsa also indicated that they would never consider adding some ugly thing on top of their cars.