UPDATED 22:46 EDT / NOVEMBER 08 2017

EMERGING TECH

Don’t blame the robot: Truck hits Las Vegas self-driving shuttle bus on first day of service

It wasn’t a good first day at work for the world’s first self-driving shuttle bus, which collided with a vehicle with a human at the wheel within a few hours of starting its shift in Las Vegas.

According to reports by Nevada’s KSNV News 3, the robot-driven vehicle made by French startup Navya Technologies SAS was not to blame. A truck driver pulled out of a loading bay and into the small bus. The shuttle does have a person who is licensed to operate such a vehicle to take control if something should take a turn for the worse.


Several passengers were on board when the collision occurred, although no one was hurt. The truck driver was at fault and got a ticket, according to city officials. If things had gone well, the bus should have taken tourists and residents around a 0.6-mile loop of downtown Las Vegas.

Las Vegas officials called the incident a minor “fender bender,” saying that the bus would be back in action soon following a few tests. “The shuttle did what it was supposed to do and stopped,” said a city public information officer. “Unfortunately the human element, the driver of the truck, didn’t stop.”

Perhaps more arresting were the comments of another Las Vegas city official, who noted, “Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has, the accident would have been avoided.”

Such accidents will come under great scrutiny, given the buzz around automation and also the attendant skepticism. It seems the finish line is in sight, although most believe streets full of self-driving cars are some years away. This week Alphabet Inc.-owned Waymo announced it was testing a fleet of autonomous taxis, that for the first time will not have a human driver.

KSNV News 3 Las Vegas via YouTube

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