Self-driving shuttle bus in crash on its first day

A self-driving shuttle bus was involved in an accident on its first day of service. The vehicle carrying several passengers was hit by a truck driving at slow speed. The new self-driving shuttle bus got off to a bumpy start in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to the police, another vehicle with a human driver was the one at fault. A spokesperson for AAA, who is working with Las Vegas and Keolis to sponsor the program and survey driver attitudes toward self-driving vehicles, also confirmed on Twitter that the accident was actually the truck driver’s fault.

The self-driving shuttle had just begun setting off on half-mile loops around the Nevada tourist haven, part of a joint project of insurance giant AAA (American Automobile Association), transportation company Kelois and French tech firm Nayva.

The bus was carrying 11 people and communicate with traffic signals, stopped itself when its sensor noticed the truck backing up. “The shuttle just stayed still and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s going to hit us, it’s going to hit us,’” passenger Jenny Wong told local NBC affiliate KSNV. “And then it hit us.”