With human drivers involved, cyclists normally dread a four-way stop. But when Google's self-driving car is at the junction, the encounter could be a safer one.
This was the case in Austin, Texas last month when cyclist Gregg Tatum encountered one of the online search giant's Lexus autonomous vehicles, according to IB Times UK.
"The car got to the stop line a fraction of a second before I did, so it had the [right of way]. I did a track-stand and waited for it to continue on through," Tatum recalled on the Roadbike Review forum.
The motion was detected by sensors on the self-driving car which caused it to put on the brakes.
"I continued to stand, it continued to stay stopped. Then as it began to move again, I had to rock the bike to maintain balance. It stopped abruptly."
Tatum said he and the car did the "dance" for "about two full minutes." But throughout the encounter, the cyclist said he was sure he wouldn't end up riding in front of Google's self-driving car.
Washington Post pointed out that a track stand is where "a rider on a fixed-gear bike may shift ever so slightly forward and back in an effort to maintain balance."
Since the move would put a cyclist's body position similar to one in motion, the publication said the track stand likely confused the autonomous vehicle.
Despite being autonomous, the Lexus self-driving car is manned by Google employees. Tatum said they "were laughing and punching stuff into a laptop" which he took was an effort to modify the vehicle's code so it can be taught to deal with the situation.
Still, the encounter didn't leave a bitter impression on the cyclist. In fact, he said:
"I felt safer dealing with a self-driving car than a human-operated one."
The vehicle does have a way to identify cyclists on the road by measuring the distance between the top of their heads and the pavement and hand signals as detailed by a Google patent, according to WP.
By 2020, Google said its self-driving car will be ready for the public. "Project Titan" is believed to be Apple's effort into making its own autonomous vehicle.
