29 February 2016 /22:05 UTC-07 Tango 01 (11 Esfand 1394/21 Jumada al-Ula 1437/23 Geng Yin 4714)

In what could be the first ever recorded accident caused by a self-driving car, a Google self-driving Lexus bumped into a bus in California.  And in what sounds like a conspiracy, Google was able to keep the accident from public view for two weeks!

It happened on 14 February 2016, in Mountain View. Perhaps they waited for the official police report to be issued before publicly admitting their mistake?

The Google car hit the city bus at two miles per hour while pulling away from the curb, after stopping on the side of the street supposedly to avoid sandbags.   Google admitted their idiot and arrogant luxury “AV (autonomous vehicle)” thought the lowly mass transit city bus would yield: “Our car had detected the approaching bus, but predicted that it would yield to us because we were ahead of it……  Our test driver, who had been watching the bus in the mirror, also expected the bus to slow or stop.”

My question is why should a city bus stop for a vehicle waiting on the side of the street?  I’ve never seen a city bus do that, if you’re sitting in your car on the side of the street you have to yield to the traffic that’s already traveling by before you can pull away from the curb!  That’s common driving rules!

This is a fine example of what I’ve written about before; when it comes to accidents who’s responsible, the humans who own the AV, or the company who makes the AV?