Colorado’s first proposed law to regulate driverless cars received the Senate’s approval Wednesday and now will wind its way to the House for consideration.

As sponsors for SB17-213 have said, the proposed rules are just a framework to establish Colorado as a welcome ground for those testing technology and cars that will drive themselves.

“I want to remind people what this is and what it is now,” said Sen. Dominick Moreno, a Commerce City Democrat, who sponsored the bill with Sen. Owen Hill, a Colorado Springs Republican. “This bill is not meant to be a comprehensive and total regulation of autonomous vehicles. The reason it is not is because the technology is still being tested and we want to be one of the leaders to bring this innovation to the state. This is what the bill is about and not about all the different factors and conditions of how these vehicles will eventually operate.”

The bill, approved on a 22-13 vote, would allow autonomous vehicles on Colorado roads as long as the vehicles obey state and federal laws. If they don’t, operators must coordinate testing with the Colorado Department of Transportation and State Patrol. The bill also precludes local municipalities from adopting their own rules in order to unify the state under one set of regulations. Currently, there are no state laws regulating driverless vehicles.

But creating just a guideline wasn’t enough for 13 senators who voted against the bill. That included all Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Don Coram from Montrose.

“This bill has come to us as a default, as long as it conforms to traffic laws,” said Sen. Daniel Kagan, a Denver Democrat. “We leave it to the operators themselves to decide if they can conform to traffic laws. We don’t depend on a third party. We just take their word for it.”

Other senators pointed out the loss of jobs for truckers, taxi drivers and other transportation employees who make a living driving. Plus there was concern that the wording will have unintended consequences, such as limiting a city reserving parking spots for human drivers. Driverless cars are expected to predominantly be used like taxis and not owned by citizens.

And then there were safety concerns. Sen. Michael Merrifield, a Democrat from Colorado Springs, was disappointed that the bill didn’t include any safety guidelines that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recommended to state policy makers. Those include an requiring registering deployed vehicles, an application process and dealing with liability and insurance.

“We should be getting into the nitty-gritty,” Merrifield said. “We’re putting people’s safety on the highway at risk. We should have rules. We shouldn’t be laissez-faire. This is an unregulated guideline.”

Most senators who voiced opposition to the bill, however, did believe this is the future and they weren’t against stopping that.

“I have looked at the statistics and this is where the technology is taking us,” said Sen. Andy Kerr, a Democrat from Lakewood. “We are going to go down the road whether we agree with it or not.”

The bill now moves to the House, where it will be assigned to committee.