If driverless cars are ever going to gain a foothold on the road, they'll need to be as safe as (or safer that) current automobiles are. Companies like Lyft, GM and Toyota have been lobbying for this type of legislation for a while now. The Department of Transportation will need to ensure this if it wants to exempt the vehicles from federal rules that govern current cars, like the requirement they have steering wheels, for example. The proposed bill, which isn't yet scheduled for full House consideration, also bars states from setting their own possibly conflicting regulations around the design, operation and software components of self-driving cars. States will be able to restrict autonomous vehicles on public roads in some way, according to ReCode.