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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

#81

Post by threeseed »

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…

> It's absurd that 24 mph in a 35 zone is considered "too slow"

It's absolutely too slow.

Majority of people drive at or slightly below the speed limit. Driving that far under causes people to start behaving irrationally resulting in lots of lane changes/tailgaiting etc. This can be dangerous when lots of cars are doing it.

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

#82

Post by [deleted] »

ubernostrum wrote: post #71
nshepperd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're basically saying that everyone should defect because everyone else does. Which may well be true for a single human driver, but is probably not how autonomous cars as a whole should be programmed. Nor does it support the claim that "speed itself is not dangerous". If everyone were driving slower, everyone would be safer (which we may actually be able to achieve once a sufficient number of law-abiding robot cars…

You're basically saying that everyone should defect because everyone else does. So, there are three speeds we need to be concerned with here: 1. Design speed -- this is the speed anticipated and planned for by the engineers who designed the road. It's visible in features like curves, merging areas and so on. 2. Operating speed -- this is the actual speed of traffic on the road once built, and typically is measured as…

[deleted]

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

#83

Post by threeseed »

joedavison wrote: post #74
fletchowns wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'd like to see police start giving tickets for tailgating instead of speeding. Speeding alone is rarely very dangerous, especially on roads with few other cars. On the other hand, tailgating is always extremely dangerous, even when the speeds involved are relatively low.

Tailgaiting is a vague concept though. One person's idea of tailgaiting is another person's idea of maintaining a safe braking distance.

If you tried to for example leave a car's body length distance in most busy cities you would have car after car aggressively cutting in front of you. This is even more dangerous than the original tailgaiting.

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

#84

Post by CamperBob2 »

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.

Yeah, it's almost as if the speed limits are unreasonably low, or something. Someone should look into that.

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

#85

Post by ggreer »

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.

To be fair, many of the speed limits are low. Look at street view where the car was pulled over.[1] El Camino Real is a divided boulevard with three lanes in each direction. There are stoplights and dedicated turning lanes. I'm not an aggressive driver, but I've caught myself speeding on that road before. Everything about it makes my mind think, "It's safe to go faster."

1. https://goo.gl/maps/WdfhEAGBsDP2

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

#86

Post by bryanrasmussen »

WildUtah wrote: post #73
afarrell wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Alphabet's Google, as we say, was operating the car. And corporations are people, my friend.

You know Alphabet has binder full of corporations so they can always send another one over to drive the car if the police take the current driver into custody.

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

#88

Post by MertsA »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #44
Others wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this a case of the car being so careful that it got pulled over. It mentions in the article that Google artificially capped the speed of the prototype to 25mph. That implies that the car is able and willing to go faster, but Google doesn't feel comfortable going that fast yet. (I don't buy their stated PR reason for the cap.)

The cap is legally mandated, for safety reasons. They are not regulated for safety in high speed crashes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle

The cap is 35 mph according to the link here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10558220

It looks like Google limited it to 25 mph on their own accord.

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

#89

Post by coderdude »

threeseed wrote: post #81
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…

> It's absurd that 24 mph in a 35 zone is considered "too slow" It's absolutely too slow. Majority of people drive at or slightly below the speed limit. Driving that far under causes people to start behaving irrationally resulting in lots of lane changes/tailgaiting etc. This can be dangerous when lots of cars are doing it.

I get this a lot. Sometimes there's a car in the far left lane (the legally unofficial "fast lane") driving much slower than the social norm expects. It causes issues. People need to move when someone is in their way. It's instinct. It screws up the flow.

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

#90

Post by jfoster »

callesgg wrote: post #87

Personally i think it is quite obvious that a self driving car a tool that you use. And therefore you as a user is accountable for the actions/damage you inflict with your tool. No different that using a gun and shooting someone by accident.

A gun isn't very autonomous, though. As tools become increasingly autonomous, it might not always be fair to place blame on the end user rather than the manufacturer.
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