Google’s June – Two Dings, 82,000 Miles, and Room for Bikes

Burney Simpson

Google had 58 self-driving cars on public roads last month at its test areas in Austin, Texas, Kirkland, Wash., Mountain View, Calif., and Phoenix.

The Google cars have traveled 1.7 million miles in the autonomous mode, and another 1.5 million in manual (or human driver) mode since it started its push into driverless tech in 2009.

The stats are from the monthly report for June from Google on its self-driving efforts.

The vehicles have averaged between 15,000 and 17,000 miles per week in autonomous driving mode. The cars drove nearly 82,000 miles in June.

Google operated 34 of its prototype Koala cars and 24 Lexus RX450h SUVs as part of its test in June.

TWO DINGS

The test vehicles were in two accidents in June, both in the Austin. Both appear to be the fault of the other driver and neither resulted in an injury, going by the Google accident report.

In one, the other driver crossed over into the Google car’s lane and lightly sideswiped the test car. In the second, a human-driven car tapped the Google car in the rear when it was stopped at a light.

Google has a chip on its shoulder about reporting accidents. It makes a point that it reports all its accidents, even though as much as 55 percent of all accidents go unreported.

SHARING WITH BICYCLISTS

The report puts a special focus on sharing the road with bicyclists.

“Cyclists are fast and agile — sometimes moving as quickly as cars — but that also means that it’s hard for others to anticipate their movements.”

Google reports its cars are taught to be especially conservative around bikes, giving them extra room, and respecting their right to own their lane.

The report claims that Google cars can sense a bicyclist’s hand signals, and differentiate between bikes depending on their size and shape.