Truck Driver Gets the Blame in Driverless Shuttle Bus Crash
It’s hard not to chuckle at this one, partly for the silly situation, but also for how the blame has been shifted to the truck driver. Various media outlets are reporting a fender bender collision (literally) between a driverless shuttle bus and a tractor-trailer in Las Vegas on November 8. The shuttle bus had been unveiled just two hours earlier, billed as the nation’s first self-driving shuttle pilot-project geared toward the public.
The egg-shaped people mover has no driver controls but did have a human monitor onboard. According to reports, the bus was gently struck by a tractor-trailer in the midst of a backing maneuver. Images show the truck partially backed into an alley, with the shuttle bus up against the right fender of the truck. The truck driver was cited for “illegal backing,” the mainstream media reports.
Some press reports are quoting a statement released by the City of Las Vegas, suggesting the collision could have been prevented if the truck had been equipped with the same collision avoidance technology the bus was using.
“The shuttle did what it was supposed to do, in that it’s (sic) sensors registered the truck and the shuttle stopped to avoid the accident,” the city said in a statement. “Unfortunately the delivery truck did not stop and grazed the front fender of the shuttle. Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has the accident would have been avoided.”
I wasn’t there to witness the incident, but having backed trucks into alleyways thousands of times, here’s how I see the event unfolding: the truck driver sets up for the backing maneuver, positioning the tractor and trailer at some angle aiming the rear of the trailer toward the alley. The tractor would likely have been facing away from the oncoming shuttle bus, and …Read the rest of this story
