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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, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:05PM
Is it opinion? Yes. Is it trollish? Yes. Is this something you need to think about? Yes.
The people I don't want on the roads are idiots like the poster.
You don't actually know how I drive - I don't drive fast and I don't tailgate. I drive with high efficiency and respect and am frequently tailgated.
When I am slowing people down I get out of their way!
The rest is just angry ranting by someone who almost seems to have a personal issue with Google.
I've got a problem with magical thinking and reverse guilt by association (the car must be good because it was made by Google so it can do things humans are not allowed to do)
Construction equipment often drives far below the speed limit.
Bicycles and other slow vehicles as well all have to *share* the road.
Here's a question: can't Google apologize for clogging the road up and say that they will work on adjusting the routing so that slow vehicles such as an NEV can route smarter like avoiding a major road by crossing it at right angles or minimizing time on the road to only left turns? That's how you drive slowly and with minimizing being a dick.
The robot car isn't programmed well and the programmers don't seem like they are interested in improving this aspect. That's pretty cruddy.