The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into a crash involving a Navya autonomous shuttle recently deployed in Las Vegas.
Late last week, a new Navya Arma was introduced in Las Vegas but just a few hours after being deployed, a delivery truck reversed into the shuttle while members of the media were inside. According to Digital Trends, the crash was extremely gentle.
Nonetheless, Reuters received word on Friday that four NTSB investigators will examine the incident.
Both the city of Las Vegas and local police say the truck driver backed into the shuttle as the autonomous vehicle was stationary. According to the city, the Arma’s sensors “registered the truck and the shuttle stopped.”
Although the accident was caused by human error, Digital Trends reporter Jeff Zurschmeide said the self-driving autonomous shuttle didn’t do everything a human driver may have done to avoid contact.
In a news piece, Zurschmeide said, “We had about 20 feet of empty street behind us (I looked), and most human drivers would have thrown the car into reverse and used some of that space to get away from the truck. Or at least leaned on the horn and made our presence harder to miss.”
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