California outlines regulations to allow self-driving cars on the open road

The draft regulations, issued almost a year late, will allow manufacturers to operate or lease - but not sell - self-driving cars to the public

California finally issued draft regulations for the public operation of self-driving cars on Wednesday, almost a year after it was supposed to. If they are adopted, manufacturers will be able to operate or lease - but not sell - self-driving cars to the general public for the first time in the US.

The draft regulations require all vehicles to have a human operator ready to take immediate control of the car if anything goes wrong. This would rule out completely driverless cars such as those being developed by Google.