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"I am not surprised that autonomous vehicles were hit," Smith said. "Any vehicle out on the road long enough will be in a crash." Google said its automated cars have driven nearly 1 million miles on autopilot and are now averaging around 10,000 self-driven miles a week mostly on city streets. The cars have traveled another 700,000 miles with humans at the helm. "Over the 6 years since we started the project, we've been involved in 11 minor accidents during those 1.7 million miles of autonomous and manual driving with our safety drivers behind the wheel, and not once was...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -- About four years ago, the Google team trying to develop cars driven by computers - not people - concluded that sooner than later, the technology would be ready for the masses. There was one big problem: No state had even considered whether driverless cars should be legal. And yet this week, Google said it wants to give Californians access to a small fleet of prototypes it will make without a steering wheel or pedals. The plan is possible because, by this time next year, driverless cars will be legal in the tech giant's home state.