[RobotCaleb]

In autonomous mode do they pull over properly if A. getting pulled over and B. emergency vehicles are whirring about doing their thing?

[gcr]

I can't wait for a hacker to make a "Get-out-of-my-way" gun out of blinking lights that makes all the Google cars in front of her pull over.

Maybe she could build it out of IR LEDs, so it's not obvious to humans. :)

[wpietri]

Impersonating a police car is, unsurprisingly, already a crime:

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

States have similar laws for other emergency vehicles. E.g.: http://www.azleg.state.az.us/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/2...

[anon4]

Does this apply when you're not fooling any person? As in, you're not trying to impersonate a police officer per se, you're fooling the vehicle's police detection into assuming a police vehicle is coming.

[hinoka]

> you're fooling the vehicle's police detection

Sounds like impersonation to me.

The "person" in impersonation refers to the entity being imitated, not the entity being deceived.

[anon4]

Yeah, but is a couple of infrared lights enough to be considered "police"? What if I yell "VWEEEWOOOWEEEOOO" and someone mistakes that for a legitimate police siren -- am I still impersonating police, or is that person incredibly stupid?

[DanBC]

intent matters.

If you say "Here's some infra-red lights. They simulate enough of a police car for other cars to change their behaviours" you're not going to have a fun time in court.

[DrScump]

It's illegal to have a forward-facing red light at all (for one example)... even if it's not turned on.

[petepete]

Or if you're impersonating another emergency vehicle, like an ambulance or fire engine.

[Daneel_]

Google cars pay attention to emergency services workers already - they talked about it in their TED talk earlier this year - link: https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_urmson_how_a_driverless_car_...

Skip to 10:00 for the police man halting the car, then waving it through.

The whole video is worth a watch, to be honest. It's amazing how well they cater for edge cases.

[EdwardDiego]

Excellent question.