Stanford CIS

Google's self-driving car caused an accident, so what now?

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""This is just one accident, and we will likely see more," said Bryant Walker Smith an assistant professor of law at the University of South Carolina. "The world is a messy place and roads are messy places so this isn't the last accident we'll ever see with a self-driving vehicle."

Walker Smith specializes in studying the development of laws and regulations involving self-driving cars.

He understands why this accident will generate lots of headlines, but beyond that he says it doesn't tell us much.

Except for this: tech companies and automakers still have a lot to figure out.

"These technologies are not yet ready for a wide range of driving conditions," he said. "El Camino Real (where the accident happened) is a horrible, busy, suburban road and there was construction. This shows Google is still trying to figure out how to handle messy conditions like this.""

Published in: Press , Autonomous Driving , Robotics