First California Permit to Test Self-Driving Cars Goes to Audi

Audi announced today that it had received the first permit issued by California for the testing of self-driving, or autonomous, cars on the Golden State’s roadways. The news comes the same day as California’s new laws governing the testing of automated vehicles take effect with an eye toward the eventual consumer use of driverless cars.

Related: Survey: Motorists Apprehensive About Driverless Cars

“California roads are especially crucial to Audi Piloted driving testing because the state is home to the brand’s Electronics Research Lab,” the automaker stated in a news release. “ERL engineers are working on a wide range of automated driving issues, including human-machine interface prompts that indicate when the human or the vehicle are handling driving functions.”

California has previously permitted limited use of its roads for autonomous-car testing, but these latest regulations allow testing on any state road by company-designated drivers, Audi stated. The new rules — which legislators passed in 2012 and take effect today — require the automaker to carry at least $5 million insurance on each licensed test car.

Several other European, Japanese and American automakers are also developing autonomous technologies, as is Google. Nabbing the first California permit is another feather in Audi’s cap in the race to be at the forefront of the driverless-car movement. Two years ago, Audi also got the first test permit in Nevada, and previously teamed with Stanford University to send the self-driving Audi TTS up the 156-turn, 12.42-mile Pikes Peak hill climb course in 27 minutes.

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