Admit it, when you see a police car in your rear-view mirror your heart skips a beat and you immediately try to recall when last you had some of your less desirable friends along for a drive - and if they may have left some "contraband" lying around that can get you in trouble. You really don't need to be so paranoid though, the only written rule is for you to pull over and let the law keepers pass you if they have their lights and siren on. TNW reports that the men in white coats at Google know this too, as you'd expect from makers of autonomous vehicles.

Their mission is to not only make their cars safe, but to ensure that the cars properly comply with the traffic laws. As smart as their cars are, there's always room for improvement. Before, if the police were hurtling down the road at breakneck speeds and one of these bubble-like autonomous cars was in the way, the police would have to initiate a defensive driving maneuver and swerve around said mobile robot. If conditions are ever so slightly wrong, that move could end in tragedy, possibly seeing a police car clip another car and putting a few people in the local hospital, or worse. Besides that obvious danger, an obstacle could be the difference between life and death for whoever called the emergency services.

In a software upgrade of sorts, the Google driverless cars will now be equipped with a patented Real Time Active Emergency Vehicle Detection System - or RTAEVDS, and acronym that will clearly never make it into daily car chats. The system automatically detects police and other emergency vehicles, but only if their lights are flashing. Once this happens, the autonomous car will pull over to the side of the road when it's safe to do so. On the other hand, if you're cruising in your Google car and the police have followed you down a few roads without their lights on, it may be time to hit that speed dial button for your lawyer.