Today, California State Governor Jerry Brown has signed the landmark legislation that effectively legalizes the operation of autonomous vehicles.
According to the bill, which Governor Brown signed at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, autonomous vehicles are now allowed to operate on California roads as long as a licensed individual is behind the wheel to take control of the vehicle when necessary.
Brown says, "Today we're looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow's reality - the self-driving car. Anyone who gets inside a car and finds out the car is driving will be a little skittish, but they'll get over it."
According to the many scientists at Google, autonomous vehicles effectively remove the most dangerous variable -- the human element most prone to committing mistakes or making irrational decisions. Since the program first launched back in 2010, Google has conducted test after rigorous test until its fleet of self-thinking robots on wheels have logged in over 300,000 miles of driver-free mobility without a single accident.
The bill will go into effect beginning next year and in the meantimes, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will be drafting a set of regulations by January 1st, 2015 that autonomous vehicles will be required to abide.
A sign of the times, industry observers believe that fully autonomous vehicles will hit the market within the next decade.
