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from the putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt dept.
A Google small neighorbood electric vehicle (aka golf cart) was recently pulled over while traveling on an extremely busy main thoroughfare in the Silicon Valley and a cute story is forming in the media about a cop who pulls over a car with no driver for no reason. What happened you ask? The car was driving slowly, 24 mph (40 kmh) in a 35 mph (55 kmh) and had a chain of other cars behind it being held up. The Google team even acts as if this is some kind of badge of honor: Driving too slowly? Bet humans don't get pulled over for that too often.
Yes, well, they do in fact get pulled over exactly for things like this. California has a law about holding up traffic on a highway. California has a law about driving at speeds so low they are dangerous because differences with other vehicles are too high. None of those laws were broken here as the Google vehicle was never actually operating outside of the law. However being inside the law isn't what we should be analyzing.
When was the last time you saw a golf cart holding up traffic on a major street in a major city? If you saw that would you think it was cute? What kind of jerk would think that was appropriate then respond that its fine because driving that slow makes things safer. The Google car and worse, the Google team. Yay?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Saturday November 14 2015, @12:59PM
No.
The people I don't want on the roads are idiots like the poster.
People doing 25 in a 35 are fine. It's the dickheads coming up behind them wanting to do 45 no matter what hazards may be ahead that are the problem.
If you get that tense and annoyed just overtake him when safe.
If you get that tense and annoyed just WAITING to overtake, then I do not want you on the road. You obviously have no self-control and shouldn't be in charge of a ton of metal capable of moving at 100mph.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @03:26PM
People doing 25 on 35 zone without any real reason like weather conditions or other kind of hazardous situation are definately not fine. If you can't drive according to speed limits then you have no business being there. You are an ass too.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @04:19PM
If you can't drive according to speed limits then you have no business being there. You are an ass too.
The 35 is a maximum speed limit, not the minimum. It's a PUBLIC road fascist pig. Seems to me you're the asshole. What next? Tell old people they are an ass if they walk too slowly on a public sidewalk?
35 zones aren't high speed zones by definition, so if people want to drive at 25 in those zones for whatever non-malicious reason (enjoy the scenery, vehicle/driver can't go so fast) as long as they are not on the overtaking lane, YOU should learn to live with it.
If they are driving slowly on the overtaking lane and they aren't overtaking any vehicles and there are no other vehicles ahead forcing them to go that slow, then yes they are an ass. But otherwise just because someone is driving slower than you want them to doesn't make them an ass. You are the ass for requiring them to drive faster.
If there's only one lane, well too bad, overtake them when you can do so safely and legally.
Yes I too get annoyed when I'm stuck behind someone driving/walking slower and I want to get to some place faster. BUT that doesn't make them an ass. The world doesn't revolve around me, nor around my needs and wants. Other people have their own needs too. The assholes are those who tailgate people and make things more dangerous, and/or cause traffic jams when stuff happens and they can't stop in time.
That said, the google car has a long way to go if it can only have a good safety record by driving at 25 mph...
(Score: 1) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:08PM
Yes I too get annoyed when I'm stuck behind someone driving/walking slower and I want to get to some place faster. BUT that doesn't make them an ass.
The car is an ass because the routing is bad: why does it not cross the busy roads at right angles? Is it because Google thinks it should drive 25 in a 35 to make it safer? Or is it because they didn't think about it and still didn't think about it and aren't going to correct it after this problem?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @06:38PM
http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/13/google-is-bad-for-traffic/ [dailycaller.com] Was article on google news :)
(Score: 1) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday November 14 2015, @07:24PM
http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/13/google-is-bad-for-traffic/ [dailycaller.com]Was article on google news :)
Haha wow that really made me laugh. Thank you!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:08PM
I suppose you are one of those people that thinks bicycles belong on the side-walk mixed with all of the pedestrian traffic.
Bicycles have fewer fatal collisions (per hour driven, not mile driven) because they have a top speed of like 30MPH. In the kinetic energy equation, the speed term is squared. Even with airbags and crumple zones, comming to an abrupt stop at high speeds is dangerous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @06:46PM
If you get that tense and annoyed on the internet you obviously have no self-control and shouldn't be in charge of a ton of metal capable of moving at 100mph.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 16 2015, @01:27AM
25 in the 35 generally ends up being more unsafe than otherwise, since general traffic will probably be moving at 35 (in practice, most traffic is probably doing around 50 because the speed limit shouldn't have been 35 in the first place (which is a totally different point, but hey), so that 25MPH car is really sticking out like a sore thumb). It sounds safer (hey, less speed, if you hit something, your expected injuries become drastically less severe the slower you go), until you introduce the human factor (generally, people rushing to work or something or other).
Going too slow generally results in getting hit in the back by the guy not paying enough attention. Down here in FL, that's a major issue (often involving the elderly -- whether it's the elderly going way too slow and getting hit, or going way too fast for themselves to handle at their age and hitting someone).
Man, now I wonder how the Google car would fare down here? It'd probably be totaled in the first week.