Apple crunched by Leaf

An Apple autonomous car has been crunched by a Nissan Leaf.

The Apple car, a modified Lexus RX450h SUV carrying special equipment and sensors, was traveling at just 1.6km/h when it was rear-ended by a Nissan Leaf doing about 24km/h in California.

Both vehicles were damaged but no injuries were reported.

The cars were preparing to merge onto the Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale, according to a report filed with the Californian Department of Motor Vehicles.

A report last year from Consumer Affairs says most self-driving car crashes involve a human driver slamming into the back of a stationary or slow-moving autonomous vehicle.

“A possible explanation is that these cars don’t drive the same way that people do,” Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon professor and software engineer who consults for self-driving car companies, told Consumer Affairs. “And if they don’t drive the same way that people do, people’s expectations of the vehicles would be incorrect.”

Autonomous software makers may have to consider how humans tend to behave on the road and inject some of that behaviour if they want to avoid these types of crashes in the future, The Verge says. “The blend of autonomous and human-guided vehicles will only increase in coming years, pending regulation on whether these cars will be eligible for all roads and weather conditions, or whether they’ll be restricted to certain areas or special lanes.”

Apple expanded its Californian test fleet to 27 cars in January, adding 18 more in March.

It has also partnered with Volkswagen to help create a fleet of self-driving employee shuttles for its Cupertino campus.