谷歌无人驾驶汽车撞上城市公交车

传说中相当完美的谷歌无人驾驶汽车，终于还是出车祸了。

据最近公布的一份交通事故报告显示，在2月14日情人节这天，一辆正在加州山景城谷歌总部附近进行测试的谷歌无人驾驶汽车，在公共道路上撞上了一辆城市公交车。

这已经是今年谷歌无人驾驶汽车第二次发生事故了。而且自从谷歌启动无人驾驶汽车项目以来，大大小小的事故已经出了十几起。谷歌称所有这些事故都是人为因素引起的。不过，到目前为止，人类驾驶员已经避免了自动驾驶汽车的13次事故的发生。

虽然事故报告并没有写明此次事故究竟是哪辆车的责任，不过据谷歌表示，发生事故的测试车辆是一台搭载了谷歌传感器的雷克萨斯SUV（又叫谷歌AV）。当时这辆测试车正在试图绕开公路上的一堆沙包，在变道的过程中撞上了右方的一辆公交车。测试车里有一名驾驶员，但他当时以为公交车会采取避让。

测试车当时的时速为2英里，公交车的时速则为15英里。此次剐蹭并未导致任何人受伤，只是导致了测试车的左前翼子板受损。

当地的机动车管理部门正在对此次事故进行调查，以判定事故责任。如果谷歌测试车要负主要责任，那么，这将是无人驾驶车辆第一次要在交通事故中因为误判而负责。

到目前为止，谷歌无人驾驶汽车已经在加州的山景城、德州的奥斯汀和华盛顿州的柯克兰三座城市累计路试超过100万英里。很快谷歌还将在其他四座城市进行路测。谷歌表示，其无人驾驶汽车搭载的传感器的设计“能够在各个方向上探测相当于两个足球场的面积的路况，包括行人、自行车和机动车辆等。”

谷歌希望在2020年以前，向消费者推出其无人驾驶汽车。从目前看来，谷歌也的确取得了一些进展。全美公路运输交通管理局已经做出规定，用于引导汽车的人工智能可以被视为联邦法律下的合法驾驶员。(财富中文网)

译者：朴成奎

One of the company’s autonomous vehicles, which was being tested near its headquarters in Mountain View, CA, struck a city bus on a public street, according to a newly released accident report. (The accident took place on Valentine’s Day.)

This is the second time this year a Google self-driving vehicle has been in a wreck – and there have been more than a dozen accidents with the cars since the self-driving car project began. Google has said all of those were caused by humans. (However, human drivers have prevented the autonomous vehicles from causing an accident 13 times so far.)

While the current report does not assign blame to either vehicle, Google GOOG -1.04% said the car, a Lexus SUV equipped with Google’s sensors (called a Google AV), was attempting to navigate around sandbags in the street and was pulling into another lane when it struck the bus on the right side. A test driver was in the car, but expected the bus to yield.

The self-driving car was going 2 mph and the bus was traveling 15mph. There were no reported injuries in the fender-bender, but the Google AV’s front left quarter panel got banged up.

The local Department of Motor Vehicles is investigating the accident to determine who is to blame. If Google’s vehicle is cited, it will be the first time an autonomous vehicle has been found responsible for a collision.

To date, the self-driving car project has driven over 1 million miles in its three test cities – Mountain View, Austin, TX and Kirkland, WA. (The company is planning to add four more test cities soon.) Google says its cars are equipped with “sensors designed to detect objects as far as two football fields away in all directions, including pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles”.

It hopes to introduce the cars to consumers by 2020 – and seems to be making progress. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has ruled that the artificial intelligence guiding the car can be considered a legal driver under federal law.