Google's Driverless Cars Capable of Exceeding Speed Limit

mrspoonsi sends a report about how Google's autonomous vehicles handle speed limits. It's easy to assume that driverless cars will simply be programmed never to exceed a posted speed limit, but Google has found that such behavior can actually be less safe than speeding a bit. Thus, they've allowed their cars to exceed the speed limit by up to 10 miles per hour. In July, the U.K. government announced that driverless cars will be allowed on public roads from January next year. In addition, ministers ordered a review of the U.K.'s road regulations to provide appropriate guidelines. This will cover the need for self-drive vehicles to comply with safety and traffic laws, and involve changes to the Highway Code, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales. Commenting on Google self-drive cars' ability to exceed the speed limit, a Department for Transport spokesman said: "There are no plans to change speed limits, which will still apply to driverless cars." In a separate development on Monday, the White House said it wanted all cars and light trucks to be equipped with technology that could prevent collisions.

Safety vs Law

[gurps_npc]

When the law says X, you break it at your own risk.

I bet most companies will follow google's plan and have autonomous automobiles (auto-autos??, auto-squared?) travel at the speed limit or lower, even if it makes things 'more dangerous'. But they should also do that only in the right lane, not blocking the left lane.

Why speed only a little?

[sinij]

It is within Google's capability to dynamically map every speed trap and even moving police cars.

With this in place, and with computer reflexes why not speed like a maniac? I for one would buy Google car tomorrow if it could get me to work at 120mph shaving time off my commute.

Rolling roadblocks

[Anonymous Coward]

Once there are enough autonomous vehicles on the road, highway speeds will SLOW DOWN. Think about it. If, on a 4-lane highway, there are 4 autonomous vehicles all driving the speed limit, each in its own lane, all side-by-side, then traffic behind them will be slowed to the speed limit. The end result is a rolling roadblock. Nobody will be able to exceed the speed limit because there will be too many vehicles all doing the exact same speed.

Is this at least user-selectable?

[mark-t]

Because I would not want any driverless car I own to *EVER* decide that it is safe to exceed the speed limit if I didn't explicitly allow it to.

Re:Rolling roadblocks

[ledow]

Dunno about the US, but in the UK there aren't 4 lanes. There is one lane, and other overtaking lanes.

Technically, if you have four cars all at the same speed in all four lanes, at least three of them would be breaking the law (dunno about the US, assume it's similar). If they're overtaking, it's not a problem, because they have to pull back in when they've completed the maneouvure and you can overtake them then.

To be honest, robots obeying rules will make the roads I travel on move faster. It's the dickheads who constantly change lanes and try to "beat" the queues when speeds come down that cause most of the slowdowns and "phantom braking waves" that I witness every day.

And, to be honest, I'd rather get somewhere at 65 predictably than 70 unpredictably, in spasms and spurts and with sudden braking.

Its been done

[ArchieBunker]

Some people already tried it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]

Re:Safety vs Law

[bws111]

Exactly how is a low speed limit 'dangerous'? It is not. It is the idiots who chose to ignore it or otherwise engage in risky behavior (following too closely, unsafe lane changes, etc) who are dangerous.

Re:Safety vs Law

[beelsebob]

It's not safety vs law. This car is driving in California, where the law says that you should do this. I'm sure in areas where the law says you shouldn't do this, it will not.

Re:A limit is a limit

[Anonymous Coward]

or your just going a few mph faster than a Semi trying to pass on the interstate and due to high winds the truck is fighting to keep it in the lane... I consider that almost getting hit and because I rack up tens of thousands of miles a year on interstates in midwest it happens ALOT.

Just accelerate past the speed limit and get around the hazard as quickly as possible = safest.. It should not become a several min encounter/maneuver passing someone because your autopilot wont go faster than a couple mph more than the object your trying to overtake.

Once I started driving motorcycles around I became deathly afraid of sitting next to a semi truck after watching a re-tread come off one and having to avoid it; if I had been next to the truck when it had happened I would not be posting here; since that experience I make an effort to spend the least amount of time trying to pass one as possible regardless of the vehicle; screw the speed limit.. 16 giant wheels that have hundreds of thousands of miles on them will blow eventually; it happens all the time and how much of your life do you want to spend next to one hoping it dont go off?