Forget A Driver

By Jonathan Tomczack

California became the third state to formally welcome self-driving cars on Wednesday, as Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing autonomous vehicles to be tested on California roads.

The signing ceremony took place at the headquarters of Google, Inc. in Mountain View. The tech giant is the most well-known pioneer of the vehicles.

Nevada and Florida already have similar laws in place, which do not legalize the cars, but rather, outline safety regulations and performance standards that have to be met by testers, such as having a licensed driver behind the wheel in case of malfunction.

"Autonomous vehicles are another example of how California's technological leadership is turning today's science fiction into tomorrow's reality," said Governor Brown before he signed the bill.

Self-driving cars, which use a combination of radar, video cameras, proximity sensors and artificial intelligence technology, have already logged over 300,000 miles. Google has said that more than 50,000 of those miles have been without any human intervention, and the only blemish on their traffic record was a fender-bender caused while a human had control.

The bill, SB 1298, also mandated that the California Department of Motor Vehicles establish licensing and testing regulations for autonomous vehicles by January 2015.

Contact Jonathan Tomczack at jtomczak@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4849.