The above video is the latest data from the 14th accident that Google's Self Driving cars have been in since testing on American roads. While that sounds terrible on the surface, the reality is that NONE of the accidents were the fault of the Google Self-Driving auto.
As you can see in the video, the Google Self-Driving car was struck from behind by another vehicle while stopped at a light. Eleven of the fourteen Google car accidents were the same or similar. Apparently, in each of these instances, the person at fault was distracted, and many of them were supposedly using smartphones while driving.
What's interesting about this is that it means a great many minor accidents like this likely go unreported each year. This means the Google Self-Driving cars have an interesting side benefit of being excellent data collectors. It's probably hard for many folks to believe that a computer could drive better than a person, but the technology has evolved so rapidly that this is statistically the new reality.
The primary reason that a computer program can operate vehicles better than humans is because the computer will always remain vigilant without getting tired or being distracted. The computer can remain 100% focused on the singular task indefinitely, whereas that is impossible for a human. The future of driving is likely very similar to what we have seen in sci-fi movies like Minority Report and I,Robot, and it's coming fast.
