The California Department of Motor Vehicles just enacted a whole spate of new laws aimed at regulating the testing of self-driving cars?and major players like Google are not happy.As Automotive News reports, the rules put strict limitations on automakers planning to test autonomous cars on the state’s public roads. There are four key aspects to the new law:

Manufacturers must submit autonomous vehicles to third-party testing to verify the car’s “ability to perform key driving maneuvers that are typically encountered in real-world driving conditions.”
A licensed driver with an autonomous vehicle operator certificate, issued by the California DMV, must be present in the vehicle at all times, “and must be capable of taking over immediate control in the event of an autonomous technology failure or other emergency.” In addition, the operator will be responsible for all traffic violations that occur while operating the autonomous vehicle. Manufacturers must apply for a permit, and submit monthly reports on performance, safety, and usage of autonomous vehicles, in order to test them on California roads. As a condition of the permit, “autonomous vehicles can only be operated by the manufacturer or made available to the public on no more than a leased basis.” In other words, no privately owned autonomous cars.
Manufacturers must also disclose to autonomous vehicle operators what information will be collected by the vehicle, ...