Video: That time a Google self-driving car crashed into a bus

A video has emerged of one of Google’s self-driving SUVs crashing into a bus carrying members of the public.

The Associated Press has obtained footage from inside the Mountain View bus as it was sideswiped by the Lexus RX vehicle on 14 February.

Posted to YouTube, the clip shows the autonomous car glancing the bus before the driver pulls over to check the damage.

The Google car was travelling at only 2mph, while the bus overtook it at 15mph.

At the time, Google commented to explain the car “predicted the bus would yield to us because we were ahead of it.”

“Unfortunately, all these assumptions led us to the same spot in the lane at the same time. This type of misunderstanding happens between human drivers on the road every day,” the company wrote.

At the time, the accident report noted that test driver within Google’s car had seen the bus, but assumed it would slow down to let him over. That didn’t happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SGVebtbDRU

The incident was reported in February and acknowledged as the first time a Google car had been at fault. It caused damage to the front bumper and the right front wheel of the autonomous Lexus.

Google has been forced to defend its self-driving cars on a number of occasions since they took to public roads near their home base.

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Although this mistake could have easily been made by a manual driver, the video isn’t going to do much to improve confidence that autonomous vehicles are ready for the roads.