DMV Reports of Recent Test Runs for Autonomous Cars

I’m Ed Smith, a Pittsburg Personal Injury Lawyer. Self-driving vehicles have been running through California ever since the state DMV approved fully autonomous car test trials. Admittedly, there have been some doubts regarding the safety of driverless cars hitting the streets. The technology behind it is still a work in progress, and there have already been some accident-related fatalities involving autonomous vehicles. A DMV report illustrated the frequent complications that have been observed in trial runs from multiple different companies.

Any company that plans on running self-driving car trials on public roads must provide the DMV with annual reports. These reports should include any information about the “disengagements” where a human driver was required to override the system to take control. Here were some of the findings per company:

Baidu: There was one report of a problematic steering maneuver; multiple cases of misjudging a traffic light; one report of failing to yield for cross traffic; dangerously slow brake reactions after being cut off; and delayed observation of pedestrians crossing the street.
Delphi: Delphi’s system had problems identifying a traffic light in one case; a GPS abnormality where the car could not determine its location; and could not always correctly predict the behaviors of surrounding cars.
GM’s Cruise Automation: Some issues included internal car sensors failing to collect all relevant data on approaching vehicles; trouble around construction cones; brake problems when approaching stop signs; and attempting to turn onto a lane of traffic that had no space for additional cars.
Nissan: Nissan is testing their own driver-less vehicles. They reported troubles with a software crash and inaccuracies in the system’s location analysis, which was vulnerable to errors when the GPS signal was spotty.
Telenav: The system did not always adhere to the three-second following distance rule; one vehicle steered itself too close to the lines of a lane boundary; one car inaccurately perceived a bridge overpass for a stopped car, and occasional parking mistakes were made.
Waymo: Problems included a vehicle that was unable to detect a signal that said “no right turn on red” in addition to various software and hardware problems.

What Does All This Mean?

It is interesting to note that despite different companies, there was considerable overlap in errors that occurred during trials. There were external difficulties, such as sensing the surrounding environment. There were also internal issues with the cars themselves, including software crashes and hardware complications.

Considering that self-driving car technology is a new field of research, there will be serious efforts to advance the progression of autonomous motor vehicles. The current hope is that these annual DMV reports will give attempting companies insight into what’s working with their systems, and even more importantly, what’s not.

Pittsburg Personal Injury Lawyer

I’m Ed Smith, a Pittsburg Personal Injury Lawyer. If you were injured in a motor vehicle accident, you could be entitled to legal compensation. I can offer you friendly and free legal advice when you call me at (925) 428-5220 or (800) 404-5400. You can also reach out to me on my website, AutoAccident.com.

I handle cases involving traumatic injuries and wrongful death legal claims.

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DMV Report of Recent Test Runs for Autonomous Cars