Google Self-Driving auto Pulled Over By Police

Google’s self-driving vehicle was pulled over by police this week for driving too slowly and impeding traffic in California, and a photo of the officer standing beside the small auto is now going viral.

“Self-driving cars are programmed to stop at red lights and stop signs”, says an article in Slate addressing several scenarios associated with autonomous vehicles.

Google says its driver-less vehicles are now out on the streets of Mountain View and Austin, Texas.

The Mountain View police addressed the incident on their blog, explaining that they meet with Google regularly to ensure that the self-driving cars are safe.

A vehicle built by Google that drives itself around city streets had a brush with the law for driving too slowly.

The director of Google’s self-driving vehicle project wrote in a Web post that all 11 accidents were minor – “light damage, no injuries” – and happened over 1.7 million miles of testing, including almost 1 million miles in self-driving mode.

A police officer in the tech giant’s Silicon Valley hometown pulled over the prototype auto Thursday because it was going a traffic-tying 24 miles per hour in a 35 miles per hour zone. The officer appears to have concluded no law was broken but warned Google about possible safety risks.

California law allows self-driving vehicles to travel on public roads as long as they travel at speeds under 35mph, so the vehicle did not receive a ticket.

If the idea of getting pulled over for driving too slow seems unusual to you, imagine getting pulled over for not driving at all. In a statement, Google said part of the reason for the conservative speed limit is to make the cars “feel friendly and approachable”. No ticket was issued and the driver-less auto was let off with a warning.

“Like this policeman, individuals sometimes flag us down when they would like to learn more about our endeavor”, Google noted.