Self-driving cars: Not ready yet, but new rules open a path

LOS ANGELES — Although consumers can’t yet get a self-driving car for themselves, the technology’s long and windy road to market is getting shorter. Still, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles formally proposed rules Wednesday that starting next year will govern how everyday people in the trend-setting state can get robocars. At the same time, in California alone the 42 companies with testing permits have been logging hundreds of thousands of miles on nearly 300 prototypes with few crashes that were clearly the technology’s fault. Unlike earlier iterations of California’s regulations, the current proposal would follow the lead of the federal government, which wants to let companies self-certify the technology is road ready. The House has passed a bill that would permit automakers to seek exemptions to safety regulations, such as to make cars without a steering wheel, and allow the sale of hundreds of thousands of self-driving cars.