Google's self-driving car was pulled over by police this week for driving too slowly and impeding traffic in California, and a photo of the officer standing beside the small car is now going viral.
The incident, which didn't result in a ticket for Google, has generated jokes about the future being full of self-driving cars jamming the highways, just like Grandpa.
The incident occurred Thursday in Mountain View, California, where Google headquarters is located, and caused such a social media uproar that the
police department put out a statement on its police blog.
"This afternoon a Mountain View Police Department traffic officer noticed traffic backing up behind a slow-moving car traveling in the eastbound #3 lane on El Camino Real, near Rengstorff Ave," the department announced. "The car was traveling at 24 mph in a 35-mph zone. As the officer approached the slow-moving car he realized it was a Google Autonomous Vehicle. The officer stopped the car and made contact with the operators to learn more about how the car was choosing speeds along certain roadways and to educate the operators about impeding traffic."
Google posted on Google+ that its cars have driven 1.2 million miles without getting a ticket.
"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," the company said.