Google and Delphi self-driving cars in near miss

In a showdown of self-driving cars a Google vehicle recently cut off a Delphi car attempting to switch roadway lanes, and came perilously close to crashing.

Auto parts maker Delphi says that its experimental self-driving car was on a street in Silicon Valley when the near accident occurred as both car moved in to the same lane of traffic. A Delphi spokeswoman insisted it was not so much a near-miss as it was proof that the autonomous cars are capable of avoiding accidents.

"Our car saw the Google car move into the same lane as our car was planning to move into, but upon detecting that the lane was no longer open it decided to terminate the move and wait until it was clear again," Kristen Kinley told CNN Money.

Google agreed.

"The headline here is that two self-driving cars did what they were supposed to do in a fairly ordinary everyday driving scenario," said a representative.

Self-driving cars are allowed on streets and highways in California, but they're required to have a human sitting behind the steering wheel to take charge if there's a problem. There's no indication that was the case in the near miss.

Google revealed in May that its driverless cars had been involved in 11 accidents, but they were mostly minor fender-benders and no one was injured. The company claims none of the accidents was the fault of the Google car.

Google currently has 23 self-driving Lexus cars on the road along with nine prototypes of its own car design.