Google Self-Driving Car Has 2 Crashes

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 7, 6:43AM EDT

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Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) puts out a monthly report on the activity of the unit that runs its self-driving car initiative. The June report disclosed two accidents, which should barely raise concerns.

First, the basic data:

Vehicles
● 23 Lexus RX450h SUVs — currently self-driving on public streets, mainly Mountain View, CA
● 25 prototypes — 2 are currently self-driving on public streets, mainly Mountain View, CA

Miles driven since start of project in 2009
“Autonomous mode” means the software is driving the vehicle, and safety drivers are not touching the manual controls. “Manual mode” means the safety drivers are driving the car.
● Autonomous mode: 1,057,962 miles
● Manual mode: 816,380 miles
● We’re currently averaging ~10,000 autonomous miles per week on public streets

The number of miles driven supports the argument that Google has come far along with the experiment.

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June crashes were so minor as to be barely worth disclosing:

June 4, 2015: A Google Lexus model autonomous vehicle (“Google AV”) was travelling westbound on California St. in Mountain View in autonomous mode and was stopped behind traffic at a red light at the intersection of California St. and Rengstorff Ave. A vehicle approaching from behind collided with the rear bumper of the Google AV. The Google AV was stopped for approximately 17 seconds prior to the collision. 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 no damage and there was no visible damage to the other vehicle.

June 18, 2015: A Google Lexus model autonomous vehicle (“Google AV”) was traveling northbound on California St. in Mountain View in autonomous mode and was stopped at a red light in the straight-only lane at the intersection of California St. and Bryant St. The lane to the left of the Google AV was a left-turn-only lane. The vehicle waiting immediately behind the Google AV in the straight-only lane began to move forward when the green arrow left turn signal appeared (despite the signal for the straight-only lane remaining red) and collided with the rear bumper of the Google AV. The Google AV had been stopped for about 11 seconds at the time of impact. The other vehicle was traveling about 5 mph at the time of impact. There were no injuries reported at the scene by either party. The Google AV sustained minor damage (scrapes) to its rear bumper. The other vehicle sustained minor damage (scrapes) to its front bumper.

However, many people worry that self-driving cars are dangerous because they are new and may be subject to glitches — maybe dangerous ones. June’s report shows those anxious drivers should rest in peace.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.