Google’s self-driven cars will soon be running on Nevada roads after it got approval for the nation’s first autonomous vehicle license from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles on Monday.
This move came after officials rode along on drives on highways, in Carson City neighborhoods and along the famous Las Vegas Strip, the Nevada DMV said in a statement.
The Nevada legislature last year approved self-driven cars for the state’s roads, the first such law in the United States. That law went into effect on March 1, 2012.
Google’s self-driven cars depend on radar sensors, lasers, video cameras and a database of information collected from manually driven cars to assist in navigation, according to the company.
The Department of Motor Vehicles licensed a Toyota Prius that Google reformed with its experimental driver-less technology, which has been developed by Google Vice President Sebastian Thrun and Stanford professor.
According to the company, Google’s self-driving cars have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and driven along the picturesque Pacific Coast Highway.
Nevada DMV director Bruce Breslow said in a statement that Autonomous vehicles are the “car of the future,” Further he added “The state also has plans to license autonomous vehicles owned by the members of the public.”
Legislation to administer autonomous cars is being examined in other states, including Google’s home state of California.
“The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error. Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analyzing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely,” California state Senator Alex Padilla said in March when he introduced that state’s autonomous car legislation.
The DMV said other car companies are also looking for self-driven car licenses in Nevada,.
