Driverless Bus Crashes 2 Hours After Vegas Launch

The robots won this one. A driverless shuttle bus was involved in a minor crash with a semi-truck less than two hours after it made its debut on Las Vegas streets Wednesday in front of cameras and celebrities. The human behind the wheel of the truck was at fault, police said. Las Vegas police officer Aden Ocampo-Gomez said the semi-truck's driver was cited for illegal backing, the AP reports. No injuries were reported. "The shuttle did what it was supposed to do, in that it's (sic) sensors registered the truck and the shuttle stopped to avoid the accident," the city said in a statement.

"Unfortunately the delivery truck did not stop and grazed the front fender of the shuttle," the city said. "Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has the accident would have been avoided." At the unveiling ceremony, officials promoted it as the nation's first self-driving shuttle pilot project geared toward the public. Before it crashed, dozens of people had lined up to get a free trip on a 0.6-mile loop in downtown Las Vegas. City spokesman Jace Radke said the shuttle took two more loops after the crash. NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and magic duo Penn and Teller were among the first passengers.

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