Driverless Car Caught Reversing Uncontrollably On Busy L.A. Street

A Honda Accord was caught on camera reversing violently in circles in Moreno Valley, Calif. The oddest thing about the whole incident? There was nobody in the car.

According to Tommy Anderson, the man who recorded the footage, moments before he grabbed his cell phone and began filming a man was lay across the vehicle trying desperately to stop it. As you can see in the video, the hood on the Accord was open as the vehicle circled.

Police closed the street in both directions to put a spike strip down, hoping that cutting the tires would help them get the machine under control. Anderson says he was worried about officers as they closed in, noting that: “It’s a driverless car; you never know what direction that thing may go.”

Eventually, police did stop the Accord. Right now it remains a mystery as to why the car seemingly had a mind of its own; the owner told authorities it must have had a “mechanical fault” of some kind.

Beyond that, details are scarce. But how could a car suddenly take off, all by itself, anyway? And why was the owner not behind the wheel?

It’s not clear what model year the Accord in question is. Looking at the video, it appears old. That may indicate that the vehicle does not posses a “brake override” system, something that wasn’t common until the early-2000s. Brake override is where depressing both pedals causes the car to realize there’s an issue, and the power to the engine is cut. So if the throttle had stuck open in this case and the driver had frantically hit the brakes, the Accord may not have the safety feature that would recognize a fault and shut it down.

We also don’t know what transmission the car had. A manual versus an automatic might help shed some light onto what occurred. It’s plausible that the owner got out of the car, left it running, and was looking under the hood (it was open, after all). How it then popped into gear and took off is anyone’s guess.

In fact, it’s not worth guessing at all. This whole thing is just weird and makes little sense. Once a thorough investigation occurs, more information will surely surface. Let’s just hope the driverless cars of the future are better behaved than this one.