Google Driverless Cars Safety Bill Passes In California

Google sure does love its self driving cars, and a new bill has passed the State Senate in California that will set standards for safety and performance for the vehicles. Now that the bill has passed through the State Senate, it's heading to the Assembly. There's no firm timeline for when it will pass, but it should be within the next month.

The bill will allow safety and performance standards to be set up, letting California Highway Patrol judge the self-driving cars on the state's roads. Any such vehicles would have to meet stringent safety regulations, be modified in accordance with recommendations from the California Highway Patrol and DMV, and have a passenger to supervise the testing at all times.

This latest development comes after Nevada approved the use of self-driving cars on its roads a couple of weeks ago. Google's cars underwent three months of testing following similar safety guidelines. The Nevada law states that cars must have 10,000 miles clocked up on private roads and test tracks before being driven on public roads, and two humans have to be in the vehicle in case something goes wrong.

[via Wired]