Incident 71: Google admits its self driving car got it wrong: Bus crash was caused by software

Description: On February 14, 2016, a Google autonomous test vehicle partially responsible for a low-speed collision with a bus on El Camino Real in Google’s hometown of Mountain View, CA.

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Alleged: Google developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Mountain View municipal bus passengers and Mountain View municipal bus.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
71
Report Count
28
Incident Date
2016-09-26
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam

CSET Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Full Description

On February 14, 2016, a Google autonomous test vehicle was involved in a low-speed collision with a bus in Google’s hometown of Mountain View, CA. The self-driving car, a Lexus RX450h SUV, was attempting to navigate around an obstruction by merging toward the middle of a wide lane on El Camino Real, while a bus was approaching from the rear. The car and its test driver expected that the bus would slow and allow the merge, however the bus continued, apparently not expecting the self-driving car to attempt the merge, resulting in a low-speed collision. In a public statement, Google acknowledged partial fault for the incident and updated their software to assume that large vehicles are less likely to give way.

Short Description

On February 14, 2016, a Google autonomous test vehicle partially responsible for a low-speed collision with a bus on El Camino Real in Google’s hometown of Mountain View, CA.

Severity

Negligible

Harm Type

Harm to physical property

AI System Description

Lexus RX450h SUV outfitted with Google's autonomous vehicle package.

System Developer

Google

Sector of Deployment

Transportation and storage

Relevant AI functions

Perception, Action

AI Techniques

deep learning, image classification, object detection, scene segmentation, driving lane detection

AI Applications

computer vision, autonomous driving, self-driving vehicle

Location

Mountain View, CA

Named Entities

Google, Lexus, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority

Technology Purveyor

Google

Beginning Date

2016-02-14

Ending Date

2016-02-14

Near Miss

Harm caused

Intent

Accident

Lives Lost

No

Laws Implicated

California Vehicle Code Section 38750, California DMV Autonomous Vehicle Testing Regulations

Data Inputs

traffic patterns, radar, LIDAR, video camera footage

Google Self-Driving Car Crashes Into Bus

Google Self-Driving Car Crashes Into Bus

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Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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