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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 15 2015, @05:27AM
Cops pull over unusual cars all the time. This guy just was bored and wanted to get a look at the google car. He used the law as an excuse to do so.
Dont think so?
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/04/20/playmate-of-the-year-amx-returns-to-its-original-pink/ [hemmings.com]
My bets are the google car was doing nothing wrong per-se but the cop wanted a good look... But he can say 'see law xyz says I can'.
In all the time I have been driving I have only seen one other person get a ticket for being bellow the speed limit. But stopping in the middle of the road because someone thought we were ridding too close. The cop behind us didnt find it as funny.