Google 'disappointed' by proposed restrictions on driverless cars

Show Caption Hide Caption Proposed Calif. law lets automakers lease, not sell, self-driving cars Autonomous cars have been tested in California for a while. Now state regulators are looking towards their eventual deployment. California's DMV proposed a new law that would require all autonomous cars to have a licensed driver behind the wheel.

SAN FRANCISCO — Google says it's "gravely disappointed" by proposed rules from California regulators that would restrict the use of driverless cars and would ban them from traveling on public roads in the state without a licensed human driver aboard.

The proposal from the California Department of Motor Vehicles would require all driverless cars to have a steering wheel and pedals and a human driver with an "autonomous vehicle operator certificate" to take control of the car if necessary.

After testing for a number of years exclusively with sensor-loaded Lexus SUVs, Google has designed its own prototype two-person vehicle that in finished form will not have a steering wheel or pedals. The handful of prototypes currently logging test miles in Mountain View, Calif., and Austin, Texas, have temporary wheels and pedals.

“In developing vehicles that can take anyone from A to B at the push of a button, we’re hoping to transform mobility for millions of people, whether by reducing the 94% of accidents caused by human error or bringing everyday destinations within reach of those who might otherwise be excluded by their inability to drive a car," Google spokesman Johnny Luu said in an emailed statement.

"Safety is our highest priority and primary motivator as we do this. We’re gravely disappointed that California is already writing a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars to help all of us who live here,” he wrote.

If finalized, the rules could lead Google to continue testing its driverless cars in other states. Company officials have long said they expect the technology to be consumer ready within five or six years.

The automotive industry continues to buzz about technological changes that are fast overtaking its long-unchanging business. While autonomous cars are seen as the ultimate iteration of a passenger-only transportation future, the biggest leaps are currently being made in the driver-assist arena.

Google self-driving car gets pulled over A Google self-driving car was stopped for driving too slow in California. Still, Google says none of their cars have been ticketed. Video provided by Newsy

Companies such as Ford, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and others are quickly adding safety-focused features to even moderately prices vehicles that leverage tech in order to promote safety. Some features detect other cars in nearby lanes, while others take over braking if the car detects pedestrians or another object up ahead. Tesla's new Autopilot feature allows the electric car to change lanes on its own after the driver flicks the stalk.

According to the draft regulations, manufacturers would also have to put the driverless cars through a third-party safety test, regularly report accidents, implement security measures to detect, respond and alert a driver if someone hacks the vehicle and inform passengers what kind of data the vehicles collect.

Electric car company Tesla Motors and Ford are among the other companies with a permit to test vehicles on California roads, and ride-hailing service Uber has been busy hiring autonomous car engineers for its new lab in Pittsburgh.

Google might spin self-driving car project into a standalone company Google might use its self-driving car project to go after Uber. Video provided by Newsy

Google’s driverless cars are part of Alphabet's secretive X division that experiments with new technologies, and first starting testing six years ago. The project may be spun out into their own division of Alphabet, the holding company formed earlier this year to keep Google's search and advertising businesses separate from other more speculative efforts.

Driverless car technology and regulatory issues are sure to be on the front burner at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, where an increasing amount of convention hall space is being dedicated to the computerized automobile.

This hacker built a self-driving car in his garage George Hotz is a 26-year-old hacker who says he built a self-driving car in a month. Sounds absurd, right? Bloomberg's Ashlee Vance was skeptical too, so he went to test drive the 2016 Acura that Hotz retrofitted in his garage.

Follow USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn@jguynn