The development comes in the wake of a U.S. Senate panel approving the legislature for self-driving vehicles on U.S. roads.
Cruise Automation, General Motors Co’s self-driving unit has disclosed that it has more than doubled the size of its test fleet of self driving cars in California in the past three months.
With the increase in the size of its test fleet from 30 to 100, the automakers has told California’s regulators that it self-driving cars were involved in six minor crashes in the month of September.
“All our incidents this year were caused by the other vehicle,” said Rebecca Mark, GM Cruise’s spokeswoman.
Cruise is testing vehicles in San Francisco as part of its effort to develop software capable of navigating congested and often chaotic urban environments.
Investors are monitoring GM’s self-driving car progress closely with analysts saying the carmaker could deploy autonomous taxis within the next one or two years.
In a related development, a U.S. Senate panel has approved legislation which will pave the way to allow automakers to greatly expand testing of self-driving cars.
Consumer safety groups have objected to the move saying the proposal gives too much latitude to automakers.
In its filing to regulators, Cruise stated the six accidents in California, which took place last month, involved other cars and a bicyclist hitting its test cars. Importantly, the accidents did not result in injuries or serious damage, said GM in its reports. In total GM Cruise’s vehicles have been involved in 13 collisions in 2017, in comparison Alphabet’s Waymo’s vehicles have been involved in just 3 crashes.
California state law requires that all crashes involving self-driving vehicles be reported, regardless of severity.
”While we look forward to the day when autonomous vehicles are commonplace, the streets we drive on today are not so simple, and we will continue to learn how humans drive and improve how we share the road together,” said GM in a statement.
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