Skip to main content

US transport chief: ‘Google car crash not a surprise’

The recent accident in California involving a Google autonomous car and a bus “was not a surprise,” according to US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx. No one was hurt in the accident, which happened when Google’s Lexus RX-450H tried to avoid some sandbags placed around a storm drain and blocking its path; the car’s computer was said to be at fault. Speaking at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, Secretary Foxx told the BBC: “It's not a surprise that at some point there wo
March 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The recent accident in California involving a Google autonomous car and a bus “was not a surprise,” according to US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx.

No one was hurt in the accident, which happened when Google’s Lexus RX-450H tried to avoid some sandbags placed around a storm drain and blocking its path; the car’s computer was said to be at fault.

Speaking at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, Secretary Foxx told the BBC: “It's not a surprise that at some point there would be a crash of any technology that's on the road.

“But I would challenge one to look at the number of crashes that occurred on the same day that were the result of human behaviour.”

"Driverless technology presents a lot of potential for disruption on a number of fronts," he said.

"It's unclear to me now exactly how that future unfolds."

Related Content

  • Two seconds – the difference between life and death
    October 17, 2016
    Professor Donald Fisher has spent 15 years identifying factors that increase the crash risk of novice and older drivers. His findings highlight the difference between living and dying, Colin Sowman reports.
  • Interview: Jarrett Walker, author of Human Transit
    May 2, 2018
    Elon Musk has called him a ‘sanctimonious idiot’ but public transit expert Jarrett Walker tells Andrew Stone that more data and smarter cars aren't the answer to mass mobility...
  • When speed compliance becomes a safety issue
    March 29, 2017
    David Crawford finds that softly, softly can be safely, safely when it comes to speed enforcement. Comedians and controversial TV presenters have long made jokes about having to watch the speedometer so closely as they pass speed camera after speed camera that they mow down bus queues. But the joke may have some factual basis according to a study by researchers from the University of Western Australia.
  • Communication: the future of machine vision
    May 30, 2013
    Jason Barnes asks leading machine vision industry figures what they consider to be the educational barriers to the technology’s increased uptake by the ITS sector. The recent rush by some organisations within the ITS sector to associate themselves with the term ‘machine vision’ underlines just how important the technology has become in a relatively short space of time. However, despite the technology having been applied in certain traffic management applications for some years, there remains a significant s