There was a report recently that claimed Google and Delphi Automotive PLC self-driving cars had an encounter on California roads. However, according to the Delphi, both vehicles did not come close to each other.

The description Delphi is giving today is quite different when compared to what it had to say earlier. The company claimed that a Google self-driving car cut-off one of its own cars on Tuesday, though a collision did not take place.

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The incident took place in Palo Alto, one of the few places in the United States where self-driving cars can be seen on a regular basis.

Delphi claims that its self-driving car took appropriate action to avoid the Google car as it was programmed to do in situations like these. The company said its car used its sensors to pick up the Google car and was thus able to abort what it was about to do until the Google car had passed.

Apparently, the Delphi car recognized that the Google car was about to drive into the lane it was about to go into. It detected the path was no longer open and thus ended the lane change maneuver.

"During a recent visit with Reuters, our Delphi expert described an actual interaction that we encounter all the time in real-world driving situations. In this case, it was a typical lane change maneuver. No vehicle was cut off and the vehicles didn't even come close to each other," the Delphi spokeswoman said on Friday afternoon. "Both automated vehicles did exactly what they were supposed to do."

This should be seen as a possible signs of things to come on American streets if something is not done to prevent further encounters such as this. Today it might have ended in a safe manner, but we have no idea what might happen months or years down the line when self-driving cars become mainstream.

TagsDelphi