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Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

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Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#61

Post by viraptor »

declan wrote: post #50
finnn wrote: post #10

They didn't link to either of their sources, so I went and found them: Mountain View Police Department blog post: http://mountainviewpoliceblog.com/2015/11/12/inquiring-minds... Google Self-Driving Car Project Google+ post: https://plus.google.com/+SelfDrivingCar/posts/j9ouVZSZnRf

Thanks! That MV police blog post says the traffic officer stopped the car to "educate the operators about impeding traffic per 22400(a) of the California Vehicle Code." That section of the vehicle code says, emphasis added: "No person shall drive upon a highway at such a slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, unless the reduced speed is necessary for safe operation, because of…

Due to unfortunate phrasing, "no person" was driving at such slow speed ;)

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#62

Post by agumonkey »

fletchowns wrote: post #60
developer1 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absurd that 24 mph in a 35 zone is considered "too slow". This is nearly equivalent to driving 40 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, and there is not a single traffic court in any Canadian city that would uphold a ticket being served for that difference. How is this even a thing down there? In a 60 km/h zone here, you'd have to be going 25 km/h to even warrant being pulled over at all (ie: doing 15 mph in 37 mph zone). If…

In California, if you aren't driving 5 mph over the speed limit, the car behind you is going to tailgate the hell out of you. It's ridiculous, I know.

I think it's universal behavior. Driving at speed limits gets you angry looks, below speed limit and people wanna hurt you. All that so they can reach the red light earlier.

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#63

Post by developer1 »

fletchowns wrote: post #60
developer1 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absurd that 24 mph in a 35 zone is considered "too slow". This is nearly equivalent to driving 40 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, and there is not a single traffic court in any Canadian city that would uphold a ticket being served for that difference. How is this even a thing down there? In a 60 km/h zone here, you'd have to be going 25 km/h to even warrant being pulled over at all (ie: doing 15 mph in 37 mph zone). If…

In California, if you aren't driving 5 mph over the speed limit, the car behind you is going to tailgate the hell out of you. It's ridiculous, I know.

That is normal here too, and it's more like 7-8 mph. So you can receive a ticket for impeding traffic even if the people you are supposedly obstructing would be exceeding the speed limit? Instead of ticketing the slow guy, set up a sting and ticket every person exceeding the limit by more than 6 mph. This whole thing sounds backwards.

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#64

Post by executesorder66 »

laichzeit0 wrote: post #56
ajmurmann wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The possible improvements would truly need mind blowing. I can't even think of a reason why those cars would have to stop asking the way if everything goes right. There would be no more need for traffic lights or stop signs to coordinate traffic between cars. You would still need them for pedestrians. However, if the traffic lights are integrated I the same system as the cars then the cars can just adjust their speed…

It would also be great when a traffic light turned green that all cars started moving at exactly the same time, as opposed to the delay where every car waits for the car in front of them to start moving with human drivers.

Fuck I hate it when people do that i.e. 99.99% of the time. Just go as soon as the person in front of you starts going and build your gap by accelerating slightly slower than the person in front of you _after_ you are on the other side of the traffic light.

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#65

Post by afarrell »

viraptor wrote: post #61
declan wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! That MV police blog post says the traffic officer stopped the car to "educate the operators about impeding traffic per 22400(a) of the California Vehicle Code." That section of the vehicle code says, emphasis added: "No person shall drive upon a highway at such a slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, unless the reduced speed is necessary for safe operation, because of…

Due to unfortunate phrasing, "no person" was driving at such slow speed ;)

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, was operating the car, no?

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#66

Post by phire »

craigds wrote: post #19
sundvor wrote: post #3

Well I for one would find a vehicle travelling at 40km/h in a 60 zone incredibly annoying, even if they're legally allowed to travel that slow.

IME it's not that uncommon for humans to do this, but we should expect better from robot cars :) In NZ technically the local-road speed limit is 50kph, but normal accepted practice is to drive at 60. Anecdotally, I get stuck behind someone driving at 40 at least once a week. It's really annoying.

Not 60, but 59kph, so you are within the 10kph threshold.

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#67

Post by [deleted] »

wpietri wrote: post #26
gcr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't wait for a hacker to make a "Get-out-of-my-way" gun out of blinking lights that makes all the Google cars in front of her pull over. Maybe she could build it out of IR LEDs, so it's not obvious to humans. :)

Impersonating a police car is, unsurprisingly, already a crime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_impersonation States have similar laws for other emergency vehicles. E.g.: http://www.azleg.state.az.us/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/2...

[deleted]

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#68

Post by semi-extrinsic »

jws wrote: post #17

The Google cars are licensed as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_Electric_Vehicl... This means they are legally limited to 25mph and legally allowed to drive on roadways with speed limits up to 45mph. NEVs let you have very light weight, inexpensive vehicles with exceptional economy… that would be instant death traps in a high speed collision. They don't undergo ordinary cr…

At least your NEVs are limited to less than 25 mph. Here in Europe, cars like the Renault Twizy [1], the Reva etc. are all registered as four-wheel motorbikes because they won't survive a crash test. But they will easily do 50 mph and you can legally drive them on any highway. These things really are death traps.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#69

Post by TeMPOraL »

terryf wrote: post #58
Robin_Message wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In practice, people can tell the design speed of a road I think there have been quite a few studies showing most people think they are above average at driving. I don't think people do this at all. I think they are overconfident, hurrying apes, with no real conception of stopping distance or kinetic energy, aiming to just miss each other with these multi-ton projectiles. It's sadly not surprising how many people ar…

> It's sadly not surprising how many people are killed on the roads. In 2013, US, total number of traffic deaths was 32719. Total number of miles driven: 2,946,000,000,000. Miles driven per one death: 90,039,426 It's not even one-in-a-million chance of dying. It's one-in-90-million chance. That is really very good odds. Driving is really quite safe and getting safer all the time. Cars manufactured today have safety s…

> It's not even one-in-a-million chance of dying. It's one-in-90-million chance. That is really very good odds.

For you individually. Multiply that by the amount of drivers and the average amount of miles driven, and you get multiple deaths per day - almost one hundred a day, actually, in 2013.

The individual odds make drivers feel safe - and thus behave like idiots - and the result is tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths annually.

Re: Google self-driving car pulled over for driving too slowly

#70

Post by twblalock »

developer1 wrote: post #54
finnn wrote: post #10

They didn't link to either of their sources, so I went and found them: Mountain View Police Department blog post: http://mountainviewpoliceblog.com/2015/11/12/inquiring-minds... Google Self-Driving Car Project Google+ post: https://plus.google.com/+SelfDrivingCar/posts/j9ouVZSZnRf

It's absurd that 24 mph in a 35 zone is considered "too slow". This is nearly equivalent to driving 40 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, and there is not a single traffic court in any Canadian city that would uphold a ticket being served for that difference. How is this even a thing down there? In a 60 km/h zone here, you'd have to be going 25 km/h to even warrant being pulled over at all (ie: doing 15 mph in 37 mph zone). If…

In Mountain View, 24 in a 35 zone will cause traffic jams and road rage. It's a busy place.
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