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Google Car Pulled Over For Driving Too Slow, Doesn't Get a Ticket (thenextweb.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-little-bit-faster-now dept.

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."

4 of 350 comments (clear)

  1. Bullshit by Etherwalk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Bullshit by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      It may have also been because Google is Mountain View's biggest taxpayer and biggest employer. You don't bite the hand that feeds you.

  2. Re:Mixed by danbert8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?
  3. Re:Mixed by therealkevinkretz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.