Nevada has resumed putting laws into place that will allow companies to begin testing self-driving vehicles. Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles Director Bruce Breslow says the DMV is now developing new licensing procedures, and the state’s legislative commission approved moving forth with new regulations on Wednesday. Last June, Nevada had began laying the groundwork for autonomous car regulations, and in the meantime has had to align this ruling with safety, insurance, law enforcement and licensing concerns.
Driverless cars in Nevada will initially have red license plates during testing phases, and once they are deemed ready to just cruise, the plates will be green. It is assumed that any drivers first noticing a car without someone at the wheel might benefit from this sort of warning and explanation. A while back, a Google-powered Prius was involved in a 5-car fender bender, even though Google responded to the incident as being human error. Still, so far the test cars have driven themselves roughly 140,000 miles with limited human interaction, without getting distracted, sleepy or intoxicated. “All of it is amazing,” according to Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval. “It accounts for all the safety issues, It even tells you when a crosswalk is coming up,” he goes on to say.
Still, Nevada’s new driverless car legislation, called Assembly Bill No. 511, merely states that the government will continue to organize regulations on the matter. It might be a long while before the cars actually hit the public roads.