A self-driving shuttle bus in Las Vegas was involved in a crash on its first day of service.<\/p>\n
The vehicle – carrying \u201cseveral\u201d passengers – was hit by a lorry driving at slow speed.<\/p>\n
Nobody was injured in the incident which city officials say was the fault of the human driver of the lorry. The man was subsequently given a ticket by police.<\/p>\n
The shuttle is the first of its kind to be used on public roads in the US.<\/p>\n
The collision comes a day after Waymo – owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet – announced it is launching a fully self-driving fleet of taxis in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n
The Las Vegas shuttle, designed to ferry passengers to the famous strip, uses a system developed by Navya, a French company also\u00a0testing its technology in London.<\/p>\n
The shuttle carries up to 15 people and has a maximum speed of 45km\/h, but typically travels at around 25km\/h.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the City of Las Vegas told the BBC the crash was a \u201cfender bender\u201d – a minor collision – and that the shuttle would likely be back out on the road on Thursday after some routine diagnostics tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cA delivery truck was coming out of an alley,\u201d public information officer Jace Radke said.<\/p>\n
“The shuttle did what it was supposed to do and stopped. Unfortunately the human element, the driver of the truck, didn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Self-driving technology has been involved in crashes before, but almost all reported incidents have been due to human error.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year an autonomous vehicle being tested by ride-sharing company Uber in Arizona rolled over after another driver on the road failed to give way.<\/p>\n
An incident involving a Tesla Model S, which has some autonomous functions, killed a man in 2016. An investigation ruled that computer failings were partly to blame. Tesla was instructed to make the limitations of its technology clearer to drivers.<\/p>\n
Experts have said that even with these incidents, self-driving technology is already capable of making our roads significantly safer.\u00a0A study from the RAND Corporation, published this week, argued that self-driving technology should be rolled out despite its imperfections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWaiting for highly autonomous vehicles that are many times safer than human drivers misses opportunities to save lives,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
“It is the very definition of allowing perfect to be the enemy of good.\u201d<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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