The officer pulled the Google self-driving car over as it was traveling too slowly in an eastbound lane on El Camino Real, near Rengstorff Avenue. Reportedly the car was traveling 24 mph in a 35 mph zone.
According to IBN Live, the cop involved in the traffic incident recognized the vehicle was a “Google Autonomous Vehicle,” but chose to pull it over anyway and make contact with the operators to find out how the vehicle chose its speeds on certain roadways. The police department said in a blog post that they wanted to educate the operators about “impeding traffic” and that driving at this particular speed was unlawful.
The Google Self-Driving Car Project responded to the post by Mountain View police on their Google+ page, saying the speed of their prototype vehicles had been capped at 25 mph for “safety reasons.”
The post continued to say the company wants the self-driving cars to “feel friendly and approachable, rather than zooming scarily through neighborhood streets.”
According to Google their vehicles currently have “safety drivers” on board “for now.” The project says it currently has self-driving cars out on the streets of Austin, Texas and Mountain View, including modified Lexus SUVs and the prototype, pictured above being pulled over by the police officer.
The Google Self-Driving Car Project went on to explain that, as in this incident, people do occasionally flag their vehicles down to find out more about their project. They went on to brag, “After 1.2 million miles of autonomous driving (that’s the human equivalent of 90 years of driving experience), we’re proud to say we’ve never been ticketed!”
