Look Ma, No Accidents … for Google Car

Burney Simpson

The Google self-driving cars had no accidents in January, according to the latest Google monthly report card.

Since 2009, the Google cars have been driven more than 2.4 million miles, with 1,419,672 million in autonomous mode. The driving tests take place in Mountain View Calif., and Austin, Texas.

This January, the cars were put in autonomous mode for 47,561 miles. Through December last year the cars had driven 1,372,111 in the driverless mode, according to Google’s December report.

Google says it now is testing 22 Lexus Rx450h SUVs, and 33 prototypes, the firm’s Koala car. There are 41 vehicles being tested in California and 14 in Texas. The cars average 10,000 to 15,000 miles a week in the autonomous mode on public streets.

The last accident occurred in November when a conventional car going about 4 miles per hour ran into a test car at an intersection. There were no injuries. The test cars have had 17 accidents in six years.

In its January report Google extolled the virtues of its driving simulator that it uses to ‘drive’ in a virtual environment for more than 3 million miles a day.

For example, Google used the simulator to find a more comfortable way to make left turns at intersections. The firm tried out various angles of turning the vehicle, modified its program, and the new angle reportedly is more pleasing to passengers.

Google appears to be keeping separate from its monthly report the statistics it reports on ‘disengagements’ to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Disengagement is the term used when the test cars switch from autonomous to manual mode. The switch can be made by the vehicle itself or by the driver, and can be relatively common, triggered by unusual weather and other events, according to Google.

Chris Urmson, Google director of the self-driving car program, said last month that its vehicles had experienced 341 safety disengagements since November, 2014. (See “Google Cars Actually Cede Control to Humans”).

Of those 272 were triggered by Google software and 69 were triggered by the driver.