Google's driverless car, which uses cameras, radar sensors and lasers to drive without human input, was reportedly involved in its first ever crash last week.
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Google says human error was to blame for a crash involving its automated, driverless car.
The Internet giant says its modified Prius was being manually driven when it caused a five-car smash-up near Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., last week.
Auto website Jalopnik.com first posted photos of the robotic car apparently crashing into the rear bumper of another Prius, sparking a chain reaction of fender benders. It was the first reported incident involving Google’s driverless car, which has racked up more than 250,000 km.
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Jalopnik worried the crash was caused by a glitch in the self-driving car, which uses a roof-mounted camera, radar sensors and lasers to drive without human input. But Google says the car was not in auto pilot mode at the time of the collision.
“Safety is our top priority,” the company told Business Insider. “One of our goals is to prevent fender benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car.”
Earlier this year, Nevada became the first state in the U.S. to approve the use of driverless cars on the state’s freeways.
Check out Google’s driverless car in action here.
