One of Google's driverless cars may have caused an accident for the very first time.
According to an accident report, first spotted by The Economist writer Mark Harris, one of Google's driverless car was in autonomous mode when it suffered a collision with a bus while changing lanes February 14.
Google outlined the accident in its February report on its driverless cars, which Tech Insider received in advance. In the report, the company did take partial responsibility: "In this case, we clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn’t moved there wouldn’t have been a collision," the report reads.
The autonomous Lexus was driving in Mountain View, California when it approached the Castro St. intersection. The car went to make a right-hand turn at a red light but was unable to complete the move because sandbags were blocking its path.
Once the light turned green, Google's car signaled its intent to get back into its original position in the center of the lane to go around the sandbags. A public transit bus was going straight, but the driverless car decided it had enough time to pull in front of the bus after seeing it in its left-side mirror.
"Approximately three seconds later, as the Google AV was reentering the center of the lane it made contact with the side of the bus," the report reads.
Google's driverless car was traveling at 2 miles per hour at the time of the incident and the bus was traveling at 15 miles per hour. The driverless car did suffer some body damage in the left front fender, the left front wheel, and one of its sensors on the driver's side, but there were no injuries.
Although Google took partial responsibility in the report, it noted that "our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic, and that there would be sufficient space to do that." Google is now reviewing the accident and making refinements to its software to prevent this kind of collision from occurring again, the statement reads.
This is not the first time Google's driverless car has had issues at a busy intersection. In Google's November driverless car report, the tech giant notes the car was involved in a fender bender when the car approached the Clark St. and El Camino Real intersection.
The car inched forward to see if it was clear to make a turn when another car hit it from behind.
Both incidents included making a right on red at a busy intersection. In that same November report, Google outlined how its driverless cars are able to complete rights on red:
Our software and sensors are good at tracking multiple objects and calculating the speed of oncoming vehicles, enabling us to judge when there’s a big enough gap to safely make the turn. And because our sensors are designed to see 360 degrees around the car, we’re on the lookout for pedestrians stepping off curbs or cyclists approaching from behind.
This actually follows what occurred in February, since the driverless car did see the bus. It simply mistimed its ability to change lanes as the bus was approaching.
In Google's January monthly report, it mentioned the driverless cars have been in 17 minor accidents since 2012. Google was never responsible for the accident in each of these instances.
The Feb. 14 accident would mark Google's 18th accident (unless another one occurred this past month we have yet to learn about) and could be the first time Google's car is at fault.
On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.
