Google Self-Driving Cars Announced With Ford; Company Blames Humans In Crash Reports?
Tech giant, Google, has been reported to plan on teaming up with automobile manufacturer, Ford, in an effort to build self-driving cars as the former strives to improve the technology, insisting that most of the crashes were attributed to humans hitting the self-driving car, according to sources.
The planned joint venture between Google and Ford in building self-driving cars will be announced by Ford CEO Mark Fields in January 2016 at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show, as reported by USA Today.
In statement addressing to confirm the reports of Google and Ford joining efforts to develop self-driving cars, Spokesman Alan Hall said the automobile company would not comment on speculation, as stated by the source.
"We have been and will continue working with many companies and discussing a variety of subjects related to our Ford Smart Mobility plan," the spokesman said, courtesy of the source. "We keep these discussions private for obvious competitive reasons, and we do not comment on speculation," he added.
However, despite the speculations of Google and Ford combining resources to build self-driving cars, it was confirmed recently that Ford has announced as well that it will begin testing its fully autonomous version of its Fusion Hybrid in 2016, making the company the latest automaker to compete in the driverless car technology, according to PC World.
As Google's self-driving cars hit the streets of California, the company was dismayed about the proposed rules issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), as previously reported.
The proposed regulation ultimately restrained the use of driverless cars and banned them from transporting on public thoroughfares in the state without having the required licensed human driver aboard it, as reported by USA Today.
It has been reported that Google's self-driving cars have been in 17 minor crashes with roughly about 3 million kilometers of testing, where the most recent reported crash was when the automated car made a right turn during a red light back in November 2 in California, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
However, Google insists that most of the crash reports were attributed to humans as recorded by its testers, wherein the most common causes of the collisions were due to drivers who were texting, talking on the phone and the like, as stated by the Daily Mail.
