Who’s to blame when an autonomous vehicle crashes?

The folks at auto blog Jalopnik this afternoon posted what they say are photos of Google’s first (update: second!) public self-driving car crash.

Here’s what we know thus far:

• It happened near Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters.
• It’s a minor collision — apparently one autonomous Toyota Prius rear-ended another.
• Autonomous vehicles are legal in California.
• Google says the driver had switched the vehicle into manual mode.
• Earlier this year, the state legislature of Nevada created a special license that allows autonomous vehicles on the state’s freeways.

Google’s self-driving vehicles use various sensors and algorithms to get the job done.

Here’s our exclusive look at the project in a video from May:

And here’s Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab director Sebastian Thrun explaining the system, and the motive behind it, at TED 2011:

In his post, Jalopnik’s Justin Hyde asks legitimate questions about potential fender-benders with autonomous cars. Who gets the ticket? How can we determine with accuracy whether the vehicle was in autonomous mode or not?

And how will the courts deal with these issues?

Related on SmartPlanet:

• Google’s self-driving car
• Google’s self-driving car, in action
• Will Google’s self-driving car lead to more sprawl?
• Google pushes to make self-driving cars street legal
• Self-driving cars: Will you trust a robot chauffeur?
• How just a few talking cars can end traffic jams