Is that required by law? FTA '"We've capped the speed of our prototype vehicles at 25 mph for safety reasons," the post explained. "We want them to feel friendly and approachable, rather than zooming scarily through neighborhood streets."'

Sounds like Google's decision to me. Either way, it's not a highway, so that section seems irrelevant. And "in compliance with the law" is quite a broad redirect.

Yes, it's by (federal) law... specifically Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 500

http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/rulings/lsv/lsv.html

Vehicles under 3000lbs and with a max speed of 20-25mph (like golf carts) do not have to meet the safety requirements of passenger vehicles.

This wikipedia page sums up the situation pretty well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_Electric_Vehicle

Nice circular reasoning there. Google chooses not to meet the safety requirements that are imposed on regular vehicles. Because Google makes this choice you posit that the law is forcing it to limit the speed. I think you have causality backwards here.

There are similar laws preventing mopeds and other motor-driven bicycles from entering highways; the laws prevent the vehicle from maintaining highway speeds and therefore they are forbidden from entering the highway.

You're confusing highway with freeway.

A highway, as defined in the CVC, is the generic term for any public road on which the Vehicle Code applies, even if it's one lane each way: '360. “Highway” is a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. Highway includes street.'

As for the speed limiter, a 25 MPH hard limit is ridiculous unless they were limiting usage to streets with a 25MPH limit.

> Either way, it's not a highway, so that section seems irrelevant.

(IANAL) "Highway" means road or street[1]:

> 360. "Highway" is a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. Highway includes street.

(I've never actually heard highway used in common speech that way; only in the vehicle code, but that I think is what would count here.) The article also seems to indicate this was El Camino Real, which is also CA State Route 82.

[1]: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/vctop/vc/d1/36...

It should also be here[2], but that page is blank for some odd reason.

[2]: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayexpand...

According to Woody Guthrie's fairly common usage of the term, you can walk on a highway in the United States of America, and nobody living can ever make you turn back or stop you. [1]

[1] https://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm

loads fine for me.

at first, I thought maybe you had the old link (it moved last year, but they left the old one up, broken)

    That MV police blog post says the traffic officer stopped the car to "educate the operators about impeding traffic per 22400(a) of the California Vehicle Code."

Sounds like a Dukes of Hazzard episode where the Duke boys are driving a piece of junk and Rosco gets them in his speed trap. They explain that the car is incapable of exceeding the speed limit, so he gets them for impeding traffic.

Due to unfortunate phrasing, "no person" was driving at such slow speed ;)

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, was operating the car, no?

Is BMW operating my car when I turn on cruise control?

Cruise Control only regulates speed so no.

This car was engineered by people representing Google with the intent to allow it to operate completely autonomously.

Alphabet's Google, as we say, was operating the car. And corporations are people, my friend.

You know Alphabet has binder full of corporations so they can always send another one over to drive the car if the police take the current driver into custody.

> And corporations are people

Can we have at least one discussion forum where the notion of corporate personhood isn't abused into idiocy like this? Maybe here on a discussion board run by Y Combinator, a company with the mission of helping to create new corporations?

I agree that in general, this quote gets brought into the discussion rather blindly. But in this specific case, I assert (without an actual legal background) that the word "person" in this law would refer to Google and that this loophole wouldn't work.

> I assert (without an actual legal background) that the word "person" in this law would refer to Google

Of course it wouldn't.

I think if the vehicle is only able to drive 25 mph it is not allowed to drive on the freeway, otherwise one would need to allow tractors by the same argument.

In most European countries there is a minimum speed requirement when driving on thr motorway (usually between 60 - 80 km/h), and sometimes there are even lane-specific speed limits (e.g. left lane requires at least 110 km/h). All that is only relevant if the traffic actually allows you to go that fast of course.

It was not driving on a freeway. It was going 25 in a 35 zone, taking one whole lane out of 3 in that direction. Shocking, SHOCKING! ;o) https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3955848,-122.1017317,3a,75y,...

Yes, it was: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=veh&gr... states:

"360. "Highway" is a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. Highway includes street."

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/vctop/vc/d11/c...

"22400. (a) No person shall drive upon a highway at such a slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, unless the reduced speed is necessary for safe operation, because of a grade, or in compliance with law."

Yes, shocking. (Also, El Camino is a State Route, I'll let you look that one up.)

El Camino is annoying enough to drive on that it really would be quite frustrating. Depending on the time of day.

In Germany the 60 km/h is not required in terms of minimum speed. It is required in terms, that the vehicle is capable of driving that speed.

My Hanomag A-L 28 is a maximum speed in the papers of 78 km/h. As such I am allowed on the Autobahn, even that I am driving only 50 km/h or sometimes 40 km/h on a hill. Because each hill does slow down a Hanomag considerably.

Tractors are allowed. The magic phrase you need to type into google to get the relevant results is "farm implement."

Well, the law also says "upon a highway"...which seems in line with my observations that I only ever see minimum speed limits posted on highways. It sounds to me like the google vehicle was in compliance with the law.

See CVC 360

"360. "Highway" is a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. Highway includes street."

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=veh&gr...

Is it at all allowed to drive slow vehicles like tractors or scooters on a highway?

Here in Sweden, highways are off limits if the vehicle may not legally be driven faster than (i think) 45 kmph.

That's a bit of a "lost in translation" issue here: what is usually called a "highway" in Europe is usually a "freeway" in the USA. What we'd just call a "road" (pretty much any road) is called a "highway" in the US legal codes.

> what is usually called a "highway" in Europe is usually a "freeway" in the USA.

I think that usage is mostly West Coast. :)

Everywhere else, I've only heard "highway" or "interstate."

Freeway is fairly common in many parts of the US:

http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_79....

In common usage highway is still sort of reserved for larger connectors, road and street are used for local stuff.

In the US there are many roads with access limitations and minimum speeds, but many do not have those conditions.