Google self-driving car strikes bus in California

A Google self-driving car. (credit: Google)

A Google autonomous vehicle struck a bus in California on Valentine’s Day, according to an incident report (PDF) published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on Monday. Google Automotive, the branch of Alphabet that handles self-driving car research, filed the incident report in accordance with California law.

No one was hurt, Google says.

According to the report, the vehicle was in autonomous mode and in the far right lane of a main thoroughfare in the California city of Mountain View. As it approached a red light, the car automatically signaled that it would make a right turn. Cars in the same lane ahead of the autonomous vehicle were waiting at the red light to proceed straight, so the autonomous vehicle got to the right of the lane to pass those other cars, but it sensed some sandbags around a storm drain in the road, and it stopped.

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