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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: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 14 2015, @01:45PM
I grew up in west central Florida in the 1970s - highest death rate per capita in the nation, primary cause: old age. Needless to say, there were plenty of human drivers in my town who would happily pull out in front of you (because they can't discern objects more than 300' away), and then drive 20mph in a 45 zone. These humans were also politically active and shaped the police behavior in the town - they never got tickets, or even pulled over, for that kind of behavior.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @09:05PM