Looks like robots are better drivers than humans.
A driverless shuttle bus was in an accident on the first day the electric vehicle was being tested in Las Vegas.
But police said another vehicle with a human driver was the one at fault.
The new shuttle bus was cruising down S. Sixth St. — one block east from the Vegas Strip — around noon local time Wednesday when it collided with a delivery truck, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The bus, which can carry up to 11 people and communicate with traffic signals, stopped itself when its sensor noticed the truck backing up.
“The shuttle just stayed still and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s going to hit us, it’s going to hit us,'” passenger Jenny Wong told local NBC affiliate KSNV. “And then it hit us.”
The massive tires on the truck left a noticeable dent in the small blue vehicle.
Wong said the truck driver didn’t even see the self-driving bus, which couldn’t go in reverse.
“The shuttle didn’t have the ability to move back, either,” she said. “Like the shuttle just stayed still.”
No one was injured during the accident.
The driver was written up for illegal backing, according to reports.
“The shuttle did what it was supposed to do, in that its sensors registered the truck and the shuttle stopped to avoid the accident,” the City of Las Vegas said in a statement to KSNY. “Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has the accident would have been avoided.”
The city added it will continue operating the buses through Las Vegas’ downtown area over the next year.
Maurice Bell, an executive at Keolis Transit America, which helps operate the smart buses, said the accident is a bellwether as the bus goes through tests.
“That’s probably the positive point of all this,” he told the Review-Journal, “is that we have extensive data to be able to tell us what occurred and what we could do in the future to improve upon.”
