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Google Car Pulled Over For Driving Too Slow, Doesn't Get a Ticket (thenextweb.com)
New submitter slickwillie writes: A Google self-driving car was pulled over for going too slow. A photo uploaded to Facebook by Zandr Milewski shows one of Google's self-driving cars being pulled over by a Mountain View, California police officer. On on its Self-Driving Car Project page on Google+ the team wrote: "We’ve capped the speed of our prototype vehicles at 25mph for safety reasons. We want them to feel friendly and approachable, rather than zooming scarily through neighborhood streets. The Mountain View Police Department also commented on the traffic stop in a blog post saying in part: "...The officer stopped the car and made contact with the operators to learn more about how the car was choosing speeds along certain roadways and to educate the operators about impeding traffic per 22400(a) of the California Vehicle Code. The Google self-driving cars operate under the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Definition per 385.5 of the California Vehicle Code and can only be operated on roadways with speed limits at or under 35 mph. In this case, it was lawful for the car to be traveling on the street as El Camino Real is rated at 35 mph."
Cops pull people over for "driving too slowly" regardless of safety reasons all the time. And if you're from out of town they fine you. They didn't ticket the google car because it would have brought scrutiny, not because it was legal to drive that slowly on the road.
I've never heard of a cop pulling over a car for going too slowly. Never once in my life.
It's pretty much how a lot of drunk/stoned drivers get caught...
That's because when you investigate the issue close enough to be 'insightful', you realize that self-driving cars can, at least theoretically, handle themselves just fine up to around 100 mph in ideal circumstances; in less than ideal that scales down, but they're still typically safer at higher speeds.
That being said, I doubt they're going to be allowed to speed, so you have 5-15 mph right there, but that might change as well as communities realize that yes, that ticket money is indeed gone.
It typically takes about 0.5 - 1 seconds for a human to react and hit the brakes. Automated cars are a lot faster. This chops a surprising amount off the stopping distance, and properly set up the car can 'see' further as well, especially at night.
I don't read AC A human right
I can think of many times I wish others would get pulled over for tailgating.
Highway driving is actually the easy bit. Compared to urban driving the environment is much more regulated. Dedicated roads that are not shared with pedestrians and cyclists, no tricky junctions, slow bends with good visibility of the road ahead etc.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Not a good idea. The last time I had to do a hard tap on the brakes (enforced, not voluntary because the car in front stopped), with a tailgater behind me he nearly lost control and only just avoided veering into the next lane.
The best thing to do with a tailgater is to gently allow the gap between you and the car in front increase to give yourself a margin of error so you don't have to hit the brakes hard and then let the tailgater past at the first opportunity. It's better to have such idiots in front of you than behind.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
"I can think of many times I wish others would get pulled over for tailgating." While I also hate tailgaters, as a European who spends many months each year in the U.S. I have to say average American driving habits sometimes make me pull my hair out. I know driving rules and habits are different, still, if most drivers would at least try to keep to the right, to at least try to drive fast enough to be close to the speed limit on highways (not forcing 65-goers to constantly change lanes), to signal lane changes (left and right, yes, both), and not to break randomly on the open road (i.e., even when there's nobody ahead for hundreds of yards), well then maybe I wouldn't curse so much while driving. Oh, and for f* sake, if you enter the freeway and don't plan to leave at the next exit then you might sometimes consider shifting left 1-2 lanes. Well, going back to going "slow", that can be really annoying, however, speed limits are upper bounds and I don't think going 25 instead of 35 would warrant a fine in any circumstance.
If you find people randomly braking on the open road in front of you... you are tailgating. Or, possibly completely oblivious to hazards on the road. Or, in Florida.
In any case, you should figure out which it is, as if someone brakes because you are tailgating they are pissed at you. Another fun fact, lots of Americans carry guns, either just in the car or on their person. Especially in Florida.
So you should figure out why this is happening to you and fix it.
No. You must have never been on the road before. You can ask my wife what I am most likely to yell at other drivers: "WHY ARE YOU BRAKING?!?!?" For some reason many people drive with their foot hovering over the brake pedal and will tap it repeatedly for no reason at all.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Gotta love the oblivious jackass in the left lane who, after the sixth car has passed him on the right as there's nobody in front of him, hits his brakes to annoy the guy behind him who's about to be number seven. Because everyone else is the problem, and not him.