Google's driverless cars have been programmed to break speed limits, according to the project's lead software engineer.

Dmitri Dolgov told Reuters that the autonomous vehicles are able to exceed to the speed limit by no more than 10mph.

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The feature was included for safety reasons, as it was deemed more appropriate for Google's cars to keep up with other speeding vehicles, rather than lag behind and cause obstructions.

Although the project's software developers have permitted speeding, UK traffic law obviously does not, but it is unclear who would be liable for any potential fines incurred.

This is just one of the legal issues holding back mainstream usage of driverless cars, but Dolgov was quick to point out that there are also ethical issues to work out.

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"Should a car try to protect its occupants at the expense of hitting pedestrians? And will we accept it when machines make mistakes, even if they make far fewer mistakes than humans? We can significantly reduce risk, but I don't think we can drive it to zero," he said.

Last month, the UK government announced that legislation to allow driverless cars to be tested on public roads in Britain will come into effect early next year.

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