Google’s self-driving car stopped for driving too slowly

A Mountain View police officer in California stopped a Google Autonomous Vehicle. The officer stopped the car because he was surprised at the amount of traffic that had formed behind the car.

Traffic appeared to be held up by a Google autonomous car driving very slowly. The vehicle was traveling at 24 miles per hour on a road where the maximum allowed speed is 35 miles per hour, which translates into 40 and 56 kilometers per hour respectively.

The officer then stopped the car to find out from the occupants why the car chose that speed on the road in question. At the same time, the officer gave instruction on whether or not to obstruct other traffic under the California Vehicle Code, state of te read on the police department blog. The car was not ticketed because Google’s self-driving cars fall under a different regulation, namely the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Definition from the same regulation. It states that self-driving cars may only drive on roads with a speed limit of up to 35 miles per hour, which was the case here.

In a Google+ response, Google’s Self-Driving Car Project states that the prototypes of the cars cannot go faster than 40 kilometers per hour for safety reasons, so that the cars appear friendly and accessible and do not rush through residential areas like speed monsters. So far, no Google car has resulted in a traffic fine, thus the Google+ post.