It is reported that the crash caused minor whiplash for the three passengers inside the Google car and they were transported to a hospital for brief check and shortly after “cleared to go back to work.”
Project head Chris Urmson writes at Medium that the crash was a fault of the driver of the car behind and that this suggests self-driving tech is “starting to compare favorably with human drivers”.
“After we'd stopped, a car slammed into the back of us at 17 mph — and it hadn't braked at all,” Urmson explains.
This is the 14th time a Google car has been involved in an accident since the company started its project on the road in 2009.
Google says all the crashes have been caused by other drivers.