California may soon allow passengers in driverless cars

In early April, California's new rules that allow automakers, tech giants and just about anybody to test fully driverless cars on its roads finally took effect. But before those companies can realize their ride-hailing robot taxi ambitions, they have to wait for the state to adopt a proposal issued by the California Public Utilities Commission. The public utility regulator's proposed rules would allow autonomous vehicles to give rides to the public as part of a pilot program -- that is, so long as their creators meet a few conditions. To start with, only cars with backup drivers can initially take passengers. That won't be a problem, since only one (unnamed) company has applied for permission to test no-driver cars in California, thus far.