California Governor Jerry Brown Signs Google’s Self Driving Car Bill

By: Talha Bhatti  |   October 3rd, 2012   |   Business, Cars, Google, News

California Governor, Jerry Brown, signed the Google backed autonomous car bill at the end of September. The signing was broadcast by the California based technology giant on YouTube and was the culmination of efforts by Google to get self-driving cars onto the public roads of America.

 

The bill breezed through the Senate with a 37-0 vote in its favor and won by 74-2 in the Assembly. The autonomous car legislation allows companies like Google to test out the driver-less vehicles on public roads and also asks for the creation of legislation to govern these cars. This is an important step and a major part of the framework that will allow us to see automatic cars on the roads in the future. Howard Posner, a legislative staffer, worked on the bill and got sponsorship from Senator Alex Padilla.

 

9to5Google gives more details about the legislation and states that, “Padilla’s bill, SB 1298, would allow companies to test self-driven cars on public roads and require the DMV to draft rules governing use of the vehicles by the public. The measure also would define a car’s “operator” as the person sitting in the driver’s seat, or if there’s no one in the driver’s seat, the person who “causes the autonomous technology to engage.”… In its final form, the bill would give the DMV authority to reject the use of driverless cars that did not meet its standards. The measure also would require that owners be notified about what data their car is collecting, but it did not resolve questions of liability”

 

After the signing of the bill, Google co-founder, Sergey Brin spoke with the media and answered questions. He stated that the immediate plans for the technology involved further testing by employees. HE expects the autonomous cars to hit the road of the state within the next five years. Brin did mention that Google would not be adding car manufacturing to its business model. Instead, they had been talking to car manufacturers about producing vehicles that did not need drivers.

 

Source: 9to5google

Photo: PCWorld