Google's self-driving car gets approval in Nevada

Google's dream of putting self-driving cars onto the roadways has gotten one step closer despite the little accident a few months back that was attributed to human error. Nevada has become the very first state to approve of self-driving cars this week.

Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles along with its Legislative Commission gave the stamp of approval provided that these autonomous test vehicles are distinguished from regular vehicles by a red license plate. Once the technology in the test vehicles have developed enough for public use, they will then carry a green license plate.

"Nevada is the first state to embrace what is surely the future of automobiles," said Bruce Breslow, director of the Department of Motor Vehicles in a statement. "These regulations establish requirements companies must meet to test their vehicles on Nevada's public roadways as well as requirements for residents to legally operate them in the future."

Surely, this puts Nevada at the forefront of this exciting development which Google is all too happy to embrace. The search giant has been testing on California roadways its self-driving vehicles, which have traveled more than 160,000 miles without incident since 2010. There was a slight hiccup last year with a fender-bender, but that incident was blamed on human error. Major car makers such as Audi and Volkswagen also have autonomous cars in the works.

[via PC Mag]