A Google self-driving car struck a public bus on February 14, 2016, in Mountain View, California, marking the first time one of Google's autonomous vehicles was determined to be at fault in an accident.
On February 14, 2016, a Google self-driving Lexus RX 450h SUV collided with a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority bus in Mountain View, California. The autonomous vehicle was attempting to navigate around sandbags placed around a storm drain when it moved back into the center of the lane and struck the side of the bus. The Google car was traveling at approximately 2 mph while the bus was moving at about 15 mph at the time of impact. The collision caused damage to the car's left front fender, front wheel, and a driver-side sensor, while the bus sustained minor damage estimated between $2,000-$3,000. No injuries were reported among the 15 bus passengers or the Google safety driver who was present in the vehicle as required by California law. This incident marked the first time in Google's self-driving car testing program that the autonomous vehicle was determined to be at fault, as opposed to previous accidents where other drivers were responsible. Google acknowledged bearing 'some responsibility' for the collision and subsequently updated its software to better understand that buses and large vehicles are less likely to yield to smaller vehicles.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that fail to perform reliably or effectively under varying conditions, exposing them to errors and failures that can have significant consequences, especially in critical applications or areas that require moral reasoning.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed