One of Google/Alphabet's self-driving cars not one of the SUVs but one of the cute European-looking models got pulled over by a Mountain View traffic cop on Thursday as it was being tested on the city's streets. The offense: It was driving too slow and causing a backup.
Someone at the Google Self-Driving Car Project posted the news with the above photo, saying, "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."
They initially said the officer was pulling over the car to "flag us down [because he wanted] to know more about our project," but as the Chronicle and KRON 4 report, via a statement from the Mountain View Police Department, the cop pulled the car over for going 24 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. No ticket was issued.
There was, of course, someone in the vehicle, even though s/he was not driving it California law requires someone be in the driver's seat of autonomous vehicles no matter what, at least for now.
As of July, Google self-driving cars had been involved in 14 minor accidents, all of them, they say, caused by other drivers, and 11 of them rear-enders. One fender bender over the summer resulted in some minor whiplash for occupants of the car who were Google employees.
Previously: Fixie Bikes Confuse Google's Self-Driving Cars: Could This Become The Most SF Problem Ever?