The unprecedented progress and development of autonomous cars has forced federal authorities to rethink about their strategy towards this technology. As part of this transition, United States Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced on Wednesday that the agency will update its regulations and impose new policies regarding self-driving cars.

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In a statement obtained by the Associated Press, Foxx said, "I want the posture of our agency to be obviously vigilant on the safely front, but I don't want our agency to be skittish about innovations that are out there."

In 2013, the US Department of Transportation had a more measured approach regarding self-driving cars. Back then, the agency imposed a policy stating that self-driving cars should be limited to testing only. The policy added that self-driving cars are "not authorized for use by members of the public for general driving purposes."

Reviewing the recent advancement of tech companies with regards to self-driving cars, it looks like the policies imposed by the Department of Transportation two years ago are already a bit outdated. Google is in the process of expanding the testing of its self-driving vehicles beyond its compound in Mountain Valley. The tech giant has already started testing its self-driving cars in the streets of California as well as Austin, Texas.

Nissan, Honda and Tesla Motors have been busy experimenting with their own self-driving car technologies. However, in all these cases, a human driver is still behind the wheel ready to take control whenever thing get out hand.

According to Tech Crunch, up until today, the regulation with regard to self-driving cars are only at the state level. California, Michigan, Nevada, Florida and the District of Columbia have all passed bills in order to regulate the use of self-driving cars. On top of that, reports claim that several other states are considering passing a similar legislation.

TagsSelf-driving cars, Autonomous Cars, Department of Transportation, google self-driving cars, US Department of Transport Self Driving Cars