California Will Give Driver's Licenses To Self-Driving Cars

To assuage some the legal concerns around self-driving cars cruising around the roads of California, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles will start granting driver’s licenses to select cars and the humans that ride in them.

Starting in September, select engineers can pick up one of the licenses for $150, which will cover 10 vehicles and 20 test drivers.

The terms are pretty strict to prevent every techie in Silicon Valley from getting their own version of the Google car. The 14-page document limits which companies can apply for the license, and which employees from those companies can use it. The drivers have to be able to take control of the automated car at all times and have no more than one point on their license.

The companies developing them, like Google and Volvo, have to shell out $5 million for insurance just in case anything goes wrong.

The California DMV will begin accepting applications for a driverless vehicle license in July.