It is not known whether Google’s self-driving cars are programmed to feel road rage — but they are being taught to cut corners, edge out into traffic and make other human-like manoeuvres.

Google’s cars are, according to one of their makers, too cautious. They repeatedly tap the brakes when they detect danger, affecting nearby human drivers who may stop abruptly.

Months of testing on the streets of Silicon Valley have forced Google to alter its algorithms. According to The Wall Street Journal, its researchers have studied human driving to find that we “cheat” when making manoeuvres.

Google’s cars make wide turns around corners to spot pedestrians more easily. This is not, however, what human drivers do, so the cars are being programmed to hug the kerb more closely, mimicking how we cut corners and, the company hopes, helping to settle the nerves of human drivers.

The cars also edge forward at T-junctions, waiting for other cars to move rather than taking the initiative. This habit is also subject to reprogramming.

Chris Urmson, who is in charge of Google’s driverless cars project, told a conference in July that his team was “trying to make them drive more humanistically” because they were “a little more cautious than they need to be”.

Since 2009 the cars have been rear-ended 12 times, according to documents filed with the California motoring regulator. In all, they have been involved in 16 minor accidents.