Lawford Kidd's Blog

Google’s self-driving cars have been involved in at least eleven road accidents since they were introduced in 2009, however, according to the technology giants, the accidents have been a result of other drivers crashing into the smart cars.

According to Google, the vast majority of incidents have occurred when drivers hit the back of the smart cars when they stop. The figures come following the mainstream press in the United States criticising the cars.

Chris Urmson, the director of Google’s self-driving car programme said that there have been “11 minor accidents (light damage, no injuries) during 1.7 million miles of autonomous and manual driving with our safety drivers behind the wheel”.

A new campaign to help reduce the number of deaths and injuries on Scotland’s roads has been launched by road safety charity Brake.

Figures show that 172 people were killed and 1,667 seriously injured on Scottish roads last year, and across the UK as a whole there are five deaths and 61 serious injuries every day.

As part of the campaign, Brake and partners RSA and Specsavers have revealed statistics showing that shocking numbers of drivers are senselessly risking lives by flouting traffic laws. There were 105,807 fixed penalty notices issued for ‘careless driving’ and speeding offences in Scotland in 2013 – one every five minutes.