April’s Google self-driving car report details 2 minor accidents, one test driver’s story

In case you’re unaware, Google publishes a sometimes interesting but usually mundane report on its self-driving car project every month. Last month the company detailed its mapping system and a minor accident in Austin, and this month the April report describes the experience of one of its test drivers as well as two more accidents — neither of which were Google’s fault.

This is the first time that Google’s cars have seen two accidents in one month since June, 2015. Other data points of note in this report: the cars drove 66,767 autonomous miles (the highest single month total), 1,171 autonomous miles per car (the highest in 6 months), and 39,382 manual miles (the highest single month total). While perhaps interesting, none of these records are particularly surprising consider the total number of cars this month also jumped from 54 to 57.

Unfortunately, Google also made some changes to the format of its reports this month. The company is no longer detailing the number of each kind of cars it has in each city, instead opting to simply share the total number of each kind of car. As of this month’s report, there are 23 total Lexus vehicles, and 34 total prototypes. Notably, it won’t be long before the company has to start including minivans in this rundown.

Head over and read the full report if you want to read Google’s little chat with one of its Austin test drivers, and also read the details on the cars’ two new accidents this month. Spoiler: One of the accidents was barely an accident, and the other was just a little fender bender. While the total number of accidents to date has jumped to 21 with these two additions, the number that are at Google’s fault remains at just one. That accident involved a bus, and was pretty nasty.