A Waymo self-driving vehicle (a division of Google’s parent company, Alphabet) was involved in an accident earlier today in Chandler, AZ:
Right now: Pretty gnarly crash with an @Waymo van in Chandler, AZ. No visible injuries. pic.twitter.com/xBLYfDsQP7
— Matt Jaffee (@mattjaffee) May 4, 2018
Luckily, according to reports, there were only minor injuries because this looks pretty bad:
Can’t wait to get a self driving car #waymo pic.twitter.com/xWPgZF7uvf
— Punch Chucks (@Punchchucks) May 4, 2018
It appears that one human-powered car ran a red light which then hit another human-powered car which then hit the Waymo autonomous vehicle:
So Human Driver #1 runs a red light and Human Driver #2 has to serve out of the way to not hit them. Human Driver 2 loses control and drifts into oncoming traffic, striking Driver #3.
Driver 3 was a Waymo car, so what's the title?
"Self-driving car crash in Arizona" https://t.co/1YiJSCqLuN
— Ron Amadeo (@RonAmadeo) May 4, 2018
Police have already determine the Waymo vehicle, which was on autonomous mode at the time of the crash with a safety driver behind the wheel, was not at fault:
JUST IN: Self-driving Waymo vehicle involved in crash in Chandler. "The Waymo vehicle was not the violator vehicle & was in autonomous mode with an occupant behind the wheel at the time of the collision," according to the Chandler Police Department. #azfamily pic.twitter.com/4qfApd6C9H
— Briana Whitney (@BrianaWhitney) May 4, 2018
Video shared to Twitter before the crash showed a different Waymo vehicle attempting to enter the highway. When it couldn’t merge safely, the car just took the exit instead to reroute to the next destination. Maybe the cars aren’t very good looking toward the side?
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Self driving #Waymo car tried merging onto the highway, missed multiple opportunities (programmed defensive driving?), then rerouted to exit after failing ?? pic.twitter.com/qvDw6sEPmd
— Nitin Gupta (@nitguptaa) April 29, 2018
Today’s accident comes just weeks after an Uber self-driving car killed a woman crossing the street in Phoenix:
BREAKING: Tempe Police release the video from the @Uber Self-Driving Car fatal crash from Sunday night. pic.twitter.com/I1AtY4QErt
— Matt Rodewald FOX 10 (@Matt_Fox10) March 21, 2018
In the Uber example, dashcam video shows the safety driver not watching the road at the time of the accident:
Police release Uber dashcam video of fatal crash and it's bad for Uber, the safety driver and the Tempe police chief https://t.co/lP7nSurAfo
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 22, 2018
Uber quickly settle with the woman’s family to avoid a lawsuit:
Uber settles with family of woman killed by self-driving car, avoids lawsuit https://t.co/Jeq40vsU9H pic.twitter.com/xYY7zFocwz
— Peter Gunter (@MYPCER) May 2, 2018
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