California's self-driving cars could soon be setting off without human help

California is well-known as a popular testing spot for self-driving cars - not only are some of the world's biggest tech companies based there, the state's laws are particularly friendly towards autonomous vehicles, and those laws just got a little bit friendlier.

Ever since self-driving technology first appeared, car makers have had to get special permits to test out their vehicles, and they've also had to put human drivers behind the wheel should anything go wrong.

Now though, that last restriction is being relaxed, as the Verge reports - California has adjusted the wording of its regulations so that the computer inside a self-driving car can be considered the driver, removing the technicality that meant old-fashioned human drivers had to go along for the ride too.

On the road

That doesn't mean a fleet of driverless cars are suddenly going to hit the streets of California, because companies will still have to pass a number of stringent safety checks to even get a temporary license for testing out autonomous vehicles in the sunshine state.

But it is a significant step forward in self-driving car regulation. It's likely that the technology for autonomous vehicles is going to be ready a long time before the governments of the world are prepared to make it legal - Tesla's cars already come with pretty much everything they need to drive themselves.

So if you see a car without anyone inside it in California, don't panic, because it's probably just Google or Uber testing out their latest update. Trucks and motorcycles are going to get separate legislation in the near future, the authorities say.

• Road rage drivers will bully self-driving cars, suggests study