A low-speed collision with a delivery truck marked the first day of self-driving shuttle buses in Las Vegas.
The autonomous shuttle, which can’t go faster than 15 miles per hour, was clipped by a human-driven truck pulling out into the road. The driverless vehicle detected the truck and stopped, according to a report in The Guardian, but didn’t back up to avoid the collision. None of the shuttle passengers were reported to be injured.
“The shuttle just stayed still. And we were like, it’s going to hit us, it’s going to hit us. And then it hit us,” said Jenny Wong, one of the eight passengers on the bus.
The city of Las Vegas is not placing fault on the autonomous vehicle, but rather the human truck driver, who was cited, according to a statement from the city on its Tumblr page. The shuttle is sponsored by AAA and Keolis, a French transportation company.
“Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has, the accident would have been avoided,” the city statement said.
A decal on the shuttle’s front windshield reads, “Look Ma no driver [sic]”
