Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that he sees no reason to release accident reports involving the company's self-driving cars because he believes that the documents do not contain any new information regarding the incidents. Google and the DMV withheld the documents to protect the privacy of other motorists.
Brin, who oversees Google's fleet of self-driving cars, summarized his rationale about the matter on Wednesday during an exchange with a long-time critic at the Internet company's annual shareholders meeting in Mountain View, Calif.
In an effort to prove Google's transparency regarding the issue, Brin disclosed that one of the company's self-driving cars was rear-ended at a traffic signal during the past week. This is the 12th accident for Google's self-driving cars while they have covered more than 1.7 million miles over the past six years, according to USA Today.
Google says that the self-driving cars were never at fault, in spite of the fact that a company employee was driving at the time of one crash.
"We don't claim that the cars are going to be perfect," Brin said, according to ABC News. "Our goal is to beat human drivers."
Google plans to begin testing the latest version of its self-driving cars in the streets of Mountain View and other nearby public roads this summer. Initially, around 25 of the pod-like, two-seater vehicles will cruise around at speeds of 25 miles per hour.
Consumer Watchdog, one of Google's consistent critics over the years, is demanding the company release the self-driving cars' accident reports filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and other government agencies. The group says that this is in order to give the public a better understanding of the vehicles' risks.
