Gov. Brown Signs Driverless Car Bill At Google

[Opmmur]

By Lisa Fernandez and Scott Budman
NBCLosAngeles.com

Gov. Jerry Brown showed up in Mountain View Tuesday morning in a driverless Prius and signed a bill allowing Californians to sit behind the wheel of a vehicle and allow an automated robotic system do all the work.

The governor held the event at Google, and was met by Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin, since the Silicon Valley search engine company lobbied for the bill after the high-profile launch of its automated hybrid car.

"This is the essence of Google," Brown told the audience. "Being able to imagine what isn't, and bring it into reality."

At the event, which was closed to the public, Brin said the cars would be good for the "blind," the "elderly" and those who are "too intoxicated."

On a more serious note, Brin said he believed the cars would be safer than humans driving, and then he just couldn't resist one more quip. "Self driving cars don't run red lights!"

The bill, which passed in August, requires the California Department of Motor Vehicles to set up rules for driverless cars by 2015. Drivers will need to obtain special permits to sit behind the wheel of these robotic cars and be ready to take control if the vehicle crashes. The bill was authored by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles.

Some companies, such as BMW, have automated cars in the works, and for now, Google's robot car is a prototype. The company has a fleet of about a dozen of the science fiction-y vehicles - mostly Toyota Priuses equipped with self-driving technology - all without an accident.

 

[Samstwitch]

IT'S INSANE!!!

Self-driving cars are now street legal in California

September 25, 2012 - California has become the third state to welcome driverless cars with open arms. Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law today that officially legalized self-driving vehicles, following in the footsteps of Nevada and Florida. The signing event was held at the Google complex in Mountain View, Calif. where engineers have been working on driverless car concepts for years and employees routinely use them to commute to and from work.

Such vehicles weren't technically illegal to operate before passage of the bill, but Google and others working on similar technology hope that by making their use explicitly legal it will clear up any confusion on the part of law enforcement and limit the chance they might be disallowed in the future. California's bill reportedly contains fewer restrictions on the cars' use than other states, such as Nevada where each vehicle must log a certain amount of testing hours before hitting the open road, but the door is open for potential regulations to be amended at a later date.

Google believes that smart cars will prove to be much safer than those with human drivers, in part because they won't need to worry about distractions and typical reaction times. That belief was given some validity this summer when the search giant revealed that its driverless cars had completed 300,000 miles of testing without a single incident.

 

[Samstwitch]

OMG, it's really happening...A Johnny Cab!