California Governor Approves Bill for Driverless Cars

California has joined Nevada in allowing self-driving vehicles on roads. Governor Edmund Brown made it official on Tuesday (Sept. 25) when he inked bill SB 1298 into law. Google's autonomous cars are designed with sensors, cameras and artificial intelligence that put the vehicles into auto-pilot on highways and neighborhood streets. Right now the bill only allows the intelligent cars to be on public streets with a human passenger inside, ready to takeover if anything goes wrong.

No accidents have been reported by any of the cars while driving independently, but there was a fender bender while a human was controlling one. The benefits of independent cars are less traffic, less accidents, and convenient mobility for people with disabilities, like those who are blind. "Some people have other disabilities, some people are too young, some people are too old, sometimes we're too intoxicated," says Google co-founder Sergey Brin. He estimates that the cars will be ready to drive on public roads in under five years.

Google's previous cars include the Toyota Prius Hybrids and Lexus RX450h.