Driverless cars put on the fast-track as US government finally officially approves

Of course, Google has been testing driverless cars heavily, and nearly every automaker is working on them too. Many car brands already have fielded vehicles, at least on the high end, that utilize a number of semi-autonomous features such as lane-departure warning lights, little kinetic nudges of the driver to keep them awake, self-distancing radar-controlled cruise settings and even self-parking. Catching up at least rhetorically with the state of the art automotive self-guiding technology, the US Transportation Department has made its first policy statement on autonomous vehicles and pronounced them good—for the most part. It said that driverless cars should not yet be allowed except for testing but that semiautonomous features already in widespread use preventing accidents in thousands of today's vehicles are, well... good for safety. The department will continue to monitor their progress to make sure they stay good for safety. "Whether we're talking about automated features in cars today or fully automated vehicles of the future, our top priority is to ensure these vehicles—and their occupants—are safe," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.