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Driverless Car Google Artificial Intelligence

Police pull over Google’s self-driving car after low-octane chase

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

November 13, 2015 | 2 min read

There have been concerns about the potential dangers which could arise from the road testing of Google’s self-driving cars – although these fears could be put to rest if the sheer absurdity of a recent clash with police is anything to go by.

One of the automated Google test vehicles was, earlier this week, pulled over by police in Los Altos, California near the company’s headquarters... for driving too slowly.

The officer took issue with the test vehicle which dillydallied throughout the local area, unaware that its speedometer was capped out at 25mph for safety reasons.

Google stepped in with a prompt statement, defending its project yet again in the face of criticism: “Driving too slowly? Bet humans don’t get pulled over for that too often.

“We’ve capped the speed of our prototype vehicles at 25mph for safety reasons. We want them to feel friendly and approachable, rather than zooming scarily through neighborhood streets.”

It concluded: “Like this officer, people sometimes flag us down when they want to know more about our project.”

Google boasted that after 1.2m miles of autonomous driving (the human equivalent of 90 years of driving experience), none of its cars have ever been ticketed by police.

Driverless Car Google Artificial Intelligence

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