Delphi, Google: Autonomous Cars Performed as Designed in “Near Miss”

Delphi Automotive plc says an incident reported last week by Reuters involving one of its prototype self-driving vehicles and a Google Inc. autonomous car was a routine traffic maneuver in which both vehicles behaved as they should. Google agrees.

During the event, Google's self-driving car changed lanes just ahead of where the Delphi car intended to move. Detecting that the lane was occupied, the Delphi vehicle postponed its move until the lane was clear again. The companies were conducting separate tests on public roads in Palo Alto, Calif.

In reporting the incident, Reuters described the event as a "close call." The news agency says John Absmeier, director of Delphi's Silicon Valley lab and global business director for the company's automated driving program, said the Google car a specially equipped Lexus RX400h crossover cut off his prototype Audi and forced it to abort its maneuver.

Delphi now says its car wasn't cut off and the two vehicles never came close to hitting each other. The company contends it was an ordinary driving scenario in which both automated vehicles did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Over the past two years, Delphi and Google's autonomous vehicles have been involved in a handful of minor accidents with traditional cars driven by people. The self-driving vehicles were not at fault in any of the cases, according to police reports and the companies.