A cyclist recently took to the RoadBikeReview forum to detail a hilarious two-minute encounter he had with one of Google’s self-driving cars at an intersection. The end of the incident shows just how much Google values the lives of all humans, not just the ones surrounded by two tons of steel.
THE ENCOUNTER
Forum user Oxtox detailed the encounter in a forum post on RoadBikeReview.com. The encounter occurred when he approached a 4-way intersection that was guided by stop signs. When he got to the intersection he noticed a Lexus equipped with Google’s self-driving equipment. Here is how he described the situation:
“The car got to the stop line a fraction of a second before I did, so it had the ROW. I did a track-stand and waited for it to continue on through. It apparently detected my presence (it’s covered in Go-Pros) and stayed stationary for several seconds. It finally began to proceed, but as it did, I rolled forward an inch while standing. The car immediately stopped… I continued to stand, it continued to stay stopped. Then as it began to move again, I had to rock the bike to maintain balance. It stopped abruptly.”
Oxtox said the stand off between him and Google’s self-driving car continued similarly for the next two minutes.
“The two guys inside were laughing and punching stuff into a laptop, I guess trying to modify some code to ‘teach’ the car something about how to deal with the situation,” said Oxtox.
READ MORE NEWS ABOUT GOOGLE HERE!
GOOGLE HAS TAUGHT ITS SELF-DRIVING CARS TO VALUE HUMAN LIVES
A lot of news stories try to paint self-driving cars in a bad light, but this encounter clearly shows that Google has taught its self-driving cars to be patient and vigilant in avoiding an accident. In this case, the lengthy two minute standoff at a stop sign might have been a bit too cautious, but Oxtox said he felt safer dealing with the self-driving car than he would have felt if it were a human driver.
“… I felt safer dealing with a self-driving car than a human-operated one,” said Oxtox.
This certainly wasn’t a dangerous situation for the cyclist, but a human driver probably wouldn’t have waited two minutes to make sure the situation was absolutely safe for both parties before making a decision.
THE FUTURE IS LOOKING BRIGHT FOR SELF-DRIVING CARS
Google has been testing its self-driving cars for six years, and so far the vehicles have only been involved in 12 minor accidents. Each accident always seems to make headlines despite the fact that none of the accidents faulted the self-driving car, and in most cases, the self-driving car had been rear-ended.
A Google spokeswoman told The Washington Post that this was “a good example of the feedback Google wants to get from the community as it refines its software and tests in areas outside Mountain View.”
For Google’s self-driving car, this was another rare learning experience that allowed it to collect data with which to better deal with situations like this further down the road.
