Google's driver-less car got the attention of a California police officer on Thursday - but not for over-speeding. Instead, the car was apparently issued a ticket for not driving fast enough. A picture of the Mountain View policeman leaning over the car window and seemingly issuing a citation ticket is circulating on social media.

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The automated vehicle was indeed driving less than 25 mph in a 35 mph speed limit lane, according to KTVU News. But the Mountain View police officer did not issue a ticket to the car, which at that time had a human observer on board.

Google admitted that the car has been limited to drive at a maximum speed of only 25 mph because the company wants the public to view the vehicle as "friendly and easy to approach, according to The Verge. However, some states such as California do require automated vehicles or those that do not have a driver on board not exceed a speed of 35 mph. Driver-less cars must also be marked clearly and a human observer must also be inside to take over in case of emergencies.

The search engine company has boasted that its driver-less motor vehicles is yet to be issued a single citation ticket despite driving more than a million miles or the equivalent of 90 years in human driving.

A recent transportation study on Google's automated cars presented an opposite view. The researchers stated that the robotic cars may have a higher possibility of meeting a road accident as opposed to cars operated by a human driver.

The research paper however qualified it findings by saying the robotic vehicles are still in their early stages of development. Surprisingly, automated cars are usually not direclty responsible for accidents that occur around them, which seems to suggest that the other party (i.e. a human driver) is at fault. Experts have jokingly intimated that drivers may have been distracted by the sight of a futuristic driver-less car that they failed notice the other vehicles around them.

Google has stated that the test rides of its automated vehicles are conducted in close coordination with local law enforcement agencies.

TagsGoogle Car, google robotic car, autonomous car, automated vehicle, google car pulled over, google car slow driving, Google self-driving car