(Photo: The Star)

What's a thousand-pound steel monster controlled entirely by a computer, no human required? It's a driverless car! And it's one step closer to legally operating on public roads. The Singularity is nigh, friends.

According to Ars Technica, the California State Senate officially passed SB 1289, which--following the creation of standards and performance requirements by the DMV--would allow robot cars to hit the open road.

Writes Ars:

California legislators have sent a bill to the governor’s desk that could push forward the development of autonomous cars in the Golden State. The new bill requires the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to adopt new regulations, including safety standards and “performance requirements” for new autonomous vehicles. Once those new rules are put in place, the bill “would permit autonomous vehicles to be operated or tested on the public roads in this state.”

We spent years driving up and down that stretch of freeway between Palo Alto and San Francisco, so we understand California's eagerness to pass this bill. Driverless cars can't possibly be any more dangerous than the drivers sitting in traffic on the 101 right now.