Last week, the state of Nevada passed a bill that will require its state Department of Motor Vehicles to draw up rules for self-driving cars, essentially paving the way for autonomous vehicles to be used on state roadways.Section 8 of the law, which governs autonomous vehicles, will take effect on March 1, 2012. It was approved by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on June 16.
Self-driving cars have been tested by Google since 2010, and most recently by Volkswagen, whose Temporary Auto Pilot (TAP) car is part of a research project in the EU, but with what the company describes as "production-ready" components.
Nevada defines "autonomous vehicle" as a motor vehicle that uses artificial intelligence, sensors and global positioning system coordinates to drive itself without the active intervention of a human operator. More
