California Takes Another Step Toward Allowing Fully Self-Driving Vehicles

OK, sure, there are self-driving cars on California roads today. General Motors' Cruise has Chevrolet Bolts zipping around San Francisco; Google self-driving spinoff Waymo has got Chrysler Pacifica motoring about Mountain View; secretive startup Zoox has black Toyota Highlanders mixing it up along San Francisco's Embarcadero. But all these vehicles, however capable, have a decidedly un-futuristic feature: There's a human in the driver's seat, ready to grab control in case the robot goes rogue. California's Department of Motor Vehicles requires that safety driver to be there. But if autonomous technology is ever going to deliver on its promises, the human has got to go.