The State Assembly passed the bill on Wednesday before it was approved by the Senate the next day, reports CNBC. All that is needed to pass the legislation into law is the signature of the Governor Jery Brown. The regulation of autonomous cars would remain the purview of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which would be tasked with setting and monitoring the standards for self-driving vehicles permitted on the Golden State's highways.
Google invited a number of state legislators to go for a ride in some of the vehicles from their autonomous vehicle test fleet. "I had the pleasure of going out for a drive on the autonomous vehicle," California state Senator Alan Lowenthal told Reuters. "I have to say that there are some still issues with it, but it's a better driver than I am."
Earlier this week, Google announced that its autonomous fleet of vehicles have now clocked over 300,000 miles without a single accident when under computer control. The next phase of their trial will put just one driver behind the wheel of each autonomous vehicle in its fleet for daily commutes, instead of in teams of two.
With some figures suggesting that driver error is to blame for around 90 percent of crashes, the dream of dramatic reductions in the road toll delivered by self-driving cars is one step closer to reality.
