Google Blames Human for Robot Car Crash

A woman claiming to have witnessed the accident involving one of Google's robot-controlled cars says that five cars were involved, not two, as Google asserts in a statement.

There was "a huge screeching noise," according to Tiffany Winkelman, and Google's Prius struck another Prius, which then struck her Honda Accord that her brother was driving. That Accord then struck another Honda Accord, and the second Accord hit a separate, non-Google-owned Prius.

Google's original statement reads: "Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car."

Winkelman also told NBC Bay Area that an ambulance was in traffic behind the accident and also stopped at the scene.

Google spokesman  Jay Nanacarrow responded with: "I would also point out that the cars have traveled 160,000 miles autonomously without incident. (The accident) was earlier this week in Mountain View. I'm afraid I don't know (how many cars were involved)" but that when confirmed would make another statement.

Mountain View Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

-----[The original version of this story appears below.]-----

At Google, don't blame the technology when something goes wrong -- blame the person behind the technology.

That's exactly -- and literally -- what the Mountain View-based tech giant did when one of its robot-controlled cars got into a minor fender-bender this week.

Google said the car that caused the crash was actually being controlled by a human when it bumped into another computer-controlled car.

“Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car,” the company said in a statement, according to All Things D.

So rest easy. Computer-driven cars are not far off in Google's world -- or in ours. The crash occurred near Google's Mountain View campus and it involved two Toyota Priuses.

In fact, Google touts the safety record of its human-less cars. When humans stay out of the driver's seat, they have driven 160,000 miles without incident.

taken from http://www.nbcbayarea.com/blogs/press-here/Google-Blames-Human-for-Robot-Car-Crash-126845683.html