Free Republic

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.- A California police officer pulled a car over for driving 10 mph under the speed limit yesterday only to find out that it was a driver-less Google car. The Mountain View Police Department in the San Francisco Bay Area said an officer "noticed traffic backing up behind a slow moving car" on Thursday and pulled over what turned out to be an unoccupied Google Autonomous Vehicle. The incident was photographed by Aleksandr Milewski, who shared his photo on Twitter. "The officer made contact with the operators to learn more about how the car was choosing speeds along...

I'm sure there's no intention of scaremongering here. And I realize that handing our lives over to technology is something we do on planes, in trains, and every time we attempt to express ourselves in public. We are an oddly trusting species. Somehow, though, there seems a certain joy in controlling one's own destiny behind a steering wheel. When there's no wheel at all, we're at the mercy of someone else's dream. This may have disturbing consequences.

Google is building a car without a steering wheel. Sergey Brin, co-founder of the technology titan, told a Southern California tech conference that Google will make 100 prototype cars that drive themselves—and therefore do not need a wheel. Or brake and accelerator pedals. Instead, there are buttons for go and stop. A combination of sensors and computing power takes the driving from there. …