Google's Robot Controled Car -- the Future?

Hi folks -- so there are times we need to look into the future at the Automobile and American Life. And it seems that much of the really creative new technology in the U.S. is coming out of California. The Google Prius robot car was recently involved in an accident, but it happened while it was being manually driven. Intelligent Vehicle Systems -- just around the corner? Can the car still be seen as a freedom machine when a robot is doing the driving?

a report of the recent accident:

At Google, don't blame the technology when something goes wrong -- blame the person behind the technology.

That's exactly -- and literally -- what the Mountain View-based tech giant did when one of its robot-controlled cars got into a minor fender-bender this week.

Google said the car that caused the crash was actually being controlled by a human when it bumped into another computer-controlled car.

“Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car,” the company said in a statement, according to All Things D.

So rest easy. Computer-driven cars are not far off in Google's world -- or in ours. The crash occurred near Google's Mountain View campus and it involved two Toyota Priuses.

In fact, Google touts the safety record of its human-less cars. When humans stay out of the driver's seat, they have driven 160,000 miles without incident.