By now, many people are aware that Google has developed a self-driving car. What people may not yet realize is that self-driving cars have been involved in collisions. The list of crashes involving self-driving cars recently expanded to include a crash that involved some degree of bodily injury. Upon hearing this, people’s initial reactions might be to think that self-driving cars are not safe, or that a driver would have been able to avoid an accident more readily than a self-driven vehicle.  Fortunately, neither of these things are true. The self-driving cars that are being tested are proving to be quite safe, and information about collisions involving the cars indicates that they have not caused the accidents in which they were involved.

Interestingly enough, the noteworthy “first bodily injury in a self-driving car” collision in California was not actually caused by anything related to the self-driving car.  Specifically, it was caused by another driver, who rear-ended the Google car, which was stopped in traffic at a green light because it could not clear the intersection due to traffic on the other side of the intersection. According to Google, there have been other accidents involving self-driving cars, including several rear-end collisions. In all of these accidents, human error was the underlying cause of the crash.

The collisions involving self-driving cars call attention to the problem of inattention, or human error. The cars do have drivers, because the laws do not permit driverless vehicles on roadways. For the most part, the cars do, in fact, drive themselves, and the driver sits in the driver’s seat, ready to intervene if necessary.

There are not many self-driving cars on the road right now, and those that are are the ones that are being tested by Google employees. As testing continues, the self-driving car program is likely to provide plenty of interesting and useful information about cars, drivers, and all of the things that happen on the road. Google’s self-driving cars are now driving about 10,000 miles a month, which approximates the amount of driving that a typical American driver drives in a year. In total, the self-driving cars have driven over a million miles in self-driving mode. They have also logged another eight hundred thousand miles with a driver in control. The cars use computers, cameras, and other sophisticated technologies to maneuver themselves on all kinds of roadways.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Caring and Compassionate Legal Representation for Mississippi Accident Victims

While it is unlikely that you will be involved in an accident with a self-driving car, there are plenty of other vehicles on the road that could be involved in a collision with the vehicle that you are driving. If you were involved in a car crash and you are hurt, the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC want to help you. Our team of experienced attorneys is dedicated to helping you, so please call Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (800) 707-9577 to schedule a free consultation with us.