Trouble has emerged regarding the world’s first self-driving taxi project at One North district, where an autonomous car collided with a lorry at Biopolis Drive this morning.
One of the six self-driving taxis, run by autonomous vehicle software start-up nuTonomy, apparently attempted to switch lanes when it crashed into the lorry. Knowing how slow driverless vehicles are, the collision transpired at low speed, with no injuries reported by the Land Transport Authority.
If this is officially the first accident involving self-driving vehicles here, the lorry driver just became the first person in the country to have the puzzling position of putting the accident’s blame on a computer. Though no one was behind the wheel, the nuTonomy car was operating with two engineers onboard — both of whom were probably puzzled as well about how the low-speed mishap transpired.
“nuTonomy is cooperating fully with the investigation by the Singapore Traffic Police and Land Transport Authority,” said a spokesman. “Additionally, the company is conducting its own investigation into the exact cause of the incident.”
But this isn’t the first ever driverless car accident — other companies experimenting with the capabilities of autonomous vehicles have had worse luck. Google’s test cars have been involved in 14 collisions — but only one was due to the car’s software (in other cases, drivers were at fault). As for Tesla, there has been one recorded fatality involving its autopilot mode.
Reader Interactions