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

In an interview with the BBC, US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx said: "Driverless technology presents a lot of potential for disruption on a number of fronts,” adding: "It's unclear to me now exactly how that future unfolds." Speaking during the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, Secretary Foxx commented on the recent accident in California involving a Google autonomous car and a bus saying it “was not a surprise.
June 8, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

In an interview with the BBC, US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx said: "Driverless technology presents a lot of potential for disruption on a number of fronts,” adding: "It's unclear to me now exactly how that future unfolds."

Speaking during the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, Secretary Foxx commented on the recent accident in California involving a Google autonomous car and a bus saying it “was not a surprise.

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.

He 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.”

Networking & Communication Systems Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • MaaS is at the ‘baby steps’ stage – but needs to get up and running soon
    April 16, 2018
    Data sharing between organisations remains a potential problem for Mobility as a Service projects, attendees at February's MaaS Market conference in London were told. Alan Dron listens in on the presentations.
    Read More
  • Israel aspires to ITS-led future
    May 29, 2013
    Shay Soffer, Chief Scientist with the Israel National Road Safety Authority, talks to Jason Barnes about his country’s current ITS outlook and how he sees this developing in the future. Israel ranks alongside countries such as the US and France in the road safety stakes, with an average 7.1 deaths per billion kilometres driven. But at that point the similarities end, as the country’s overriding issue is pedestrian safety. This is driven by several factors, including being a relatively small country where pe
    Read More
  • Driver training saves lives, increases profits, reduces costs
    February 3, 2012
    An innovative UK Government initiative on work-related driver training has resulted in astonishing success, not only in terms of government objectives, but also in substantial cost-benefits for companies and public sector authorities participating in the scheme: they save lives and increase profits/reduce costs Here, we present an overview of the initiative and, overleaf, provide a detailed cost-benefit analysis which amply illustrates why it has been enthusiastically embraced by industry and the public sec
    Read More
  • Driver training saves lives, increases profits, reduces costs
    February 6, 2012
    An innovative UK Government initiative on work-related driver training has resulted in astonishing success, not only in terms of government objectives, but also in substantial cost-benefits for companies and public sector authorities participating in the scheme: they save lives and increase profits/reduce costs Here, we present an overview of the initiative and, overleaf, provide a detailed cost-benefit analysis which amply illustrates why it has been enthusiastically embraced by industry and the public sec
    Read More

Highlighted Content