Google Lexus Self-Drives Into a Bus

By adpock - March 3, 2016

google self driving lexus

Here’s a piece of advice for any new drivers out there: don’t hit buses.

This seems like standard operating procedure, I know, but apparently someone at Google forgot to program that command into their self-driving Lexus RX 450h that’s been cruising around Mountain View, California.

On February 23rd, while trying to evade some sandbags mussing up its lane, the obviously not-quite self-aware Lexus crashed into a bus. According to The Dallas Morning News:”The bus maintained its speed and path, and the Google Lexus crashed into it, damaging the left front fender, front wheel and a driver-side sensor on the vehicle. No one was injured.”

It seems that both the robot behind the wheel and the robot’s human handler thought the bus was going to slow down and let the Lexus in. As anyone who’s ever driven in rush hour knows, you should never assume that someone’s going to let you in, especially someone bigger than you.

The self-driving Lexus relies on sensors and cameras feeding information to a computer, which then navigates the course. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the computer has figured out what a bus looks like yet.