Steve Jobs famously opined that when it comes to true innovation, technology alone is not enough. “It’s technology, married with liberal arts, married with humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.”

When Google unwrapped its “holiday present to the world” last week, we wondered if designers at the Mountain View magic kingdom might have gotten a nip of inspiration from Apple’s late co-founder.

We won’t go so far as suggesting the precocious prototype of the world’s first driverless car is a work of art. But its “Look Ma, No Hands” two-seater causes imaginations to go wild, envisioning entirely new possibilities for commutes of the future. And the idea of designing its own signature look — cute, in a nerdy sort of way, and hardly scary at all — shows that extra flair Jobs would have admired.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to integrate driverless cars into our all-too-human highways, alleys and parking lots. What should be the rules? And where does responsibility lie when no actual person is driving the vehicle? Who gets the tickets if it speeds, or the bill when a software glitch sends it gliding into another car?

California is taking its time figuring out safety rules for self-driving cars, as well it should.

The Legislature approved the testing of self-driving cars in 2012 and gave the Department of Motor Vehicles until Jan. 1, 2015 to issue rules for auto manufacturers before they can bring the vehicles to market. State regulators told reporters last week that the challenge is so complex, the DMV will delay that release. That’s all right. It’s important. Maybe life-and-death important. Who hasn’t bought a newly released computer and found it riddled with bugs? At least it didn’t go out and play in traffic.

The Legislature’s role now is to make sure the DMV has the resources and the right team to carry out this work.

But the time will come when driverless cars are sold — and San Jose should aim to be the first major city to welcome them. That’s a nice challenge for Mayor-elect Sam Liccardo, who ran on a platform of helping San Jose live up to its slogan as the Capital of Silicon Valley.

The city has a head start: a one-square-mile “North San Jose Transportation Innovation Zone” that allows for experimentation of a range of transportation technologies.

Imagine the complexity, however. Google is still working on how its cars can handle snow and ice. They use a map-dependent system to get from point to point, but what if the maps are wrong? Who hasn’t been led to a dead end by a car GPS with an annoying voice?

What if a new traffic light or stop sign has been installed? Or an accident forces a detour, with cops and signs routing traffic on temporary detours.

Insurance presents another puzzle. Google says its cars have navigated 700,000 miles without causing an accident, but face it, no technology or machine works perfectly forever. When there’s trouble, who is responsible, the owner or the software developer? And what if a computer-driven vehicle hits another computer-driven vehicle?

With enough fail-safe systems, computer-operated cars could be safer than your Prius or BMW. Hans Larsen, San Jose’s transportation chief, says 2,700 San Jose residents were injured in automobile accidents last year, or roughly one in every 300 residents. Surely we can do better than that.

Of course filling potholes and resurfacing city streets so they’re not like washboards might help, too. Say, can Google work on that?