So, this happened: Google driverless car hits bus

Posted in Car accidents on March 10, 2016

We would hate to say “I told you so”, BUT, we did mention this. Remember last month when we posted our blog: “A Modern Day Space Race: The Self-Driving Car”. We asked “who would be at fault in the instance of an accident with a driverless car?” Well, it has now come time to find out.

Google’s driverless car hit a bus, check out this video.

Luckily, nobody was injured in the collision. What an odd situation this must have been for the bus driver. He would have seen and felt the impact and in any other instance would be able to exchange contact and insurance details with the other driver involved in the collision. What did the bus driver do in this instance? Was the Google car outfitted with a camera? And if so, was there a Google employee nervously watching as the car slowly crept towards the bus with no sign of stopping? What an interesting situation.

Our questions from our last blog on driverless cars in car wrecks still stand:

• Who is at fault for a collision, there is no driver?
• Is there any liability for the computer programmer or company that was responsible to program the driverless vehicle to detect other vehicles?
• Does the car manufacturer incur any liability?

As more tech companies develop and release driverless cars, we will look forward to observing new laws being created to regulate this futuristic industry.

Larry R. Williams, PLLC Attorneys At Law. Built on Tradition. Driven By Excellence.