It has been a promising year for the autonomous car market. While no self-driving car has yet to hit the road, advances in technology and the continued easing up of regulations have pushed the boundaries in favor of automakers and tech companies.

Recently, the California Department of Motor Vehicle issued a permit allowing Ford to test its vehicles in public roads. DMV also unveiled a roadmap where consumers are allowed to use self-driving vehicles. Despite this loosening on regulations, regulators still insist that manufacturers have to prove that the technology is safe before their self-driving cars are allowed on public roads.

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DMV said in a statement, "Given the potential risks associated with deployment of such a new technology, DMV believes that manufacturers need to obtain more experience in testing driverless vehicles on public roads prior to making this technology available to the general public."

The recently drafted regulation also requires self-driving cars to have a licensed driver behind the wheel ready to take over in case the machine fails. This specific requirement did not sit well with tech giant Google, which is currently the frontrunner of the technology. Google is planning to release an autonomous car without pedals or steering wheel.

The Mountain View-based tech company expressed its "grave disappointment" with the regulation. Google added that the regulation will slow down the deployment of a technology that could have huge life-saving potential.

With the recent inclusion of Ford, there are currently 11 companies that have permission to test their self-driving vehicles in California road. Minor collisions have been reported, majority of it involves Google cars. Google said that no one was injured on those collisions and all of them were initiated by other drivers and not by company's self-driving cars.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is not publicly critical about autonomous car technology. Perhaps this is because traditional automakers that the group represents are also key players in the development of the technology.

TagsSelf-driving cars, Autonomous Cars, Ford, DMV, California DMV, Department of Motor Vehicle, autonomous cars DMV, DMV autonomous cars, DMV news, autonomous cars news