Recently, the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released final rules that would officially permit autonomous or self-driving vehicles to officially be established and produced--as long as companies comply with other safety regulations, then they will be permitted to be driven on the road.

Currently, self-driving vehicles in the United States only run in small amounts, and usually involve safety drivers who can run the vehicles as a form of backup, in addition to manual controls that can be utilized.

"Through the 2020s, an important part of USDOT's safety mission will be to ensure safety standards keep pace with the development of automated driving and driver assistance systems," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement regarding this matter. "This new rule is an important step, establishing robust safety standards for ADS-equipped vehicles."

This new rule regarding self-driving vehicles, which was first released in March 2020, highlights the significance of them having passenger protection in the same way that human-driven vehicles would. The rule states that children are not permitted to be seated in the "driver's" seat, since the driver's seat has not been made to appropriately protect children in the case of an accident.

In a written rendition of the rule, which was signed by NHTSA Deputy Administrator Steven S. Cliff, NHTSA said that it "sought to clarify that a manufacturer of ADS-equipped vehicles must continue to apply occupant protection standards to its vehicles even if manual steering controls are not installed in the vehicle."

This particular rule came about after around a month after General Motors (GM  ) and its self-driving unit Cruise requested that they would be allowed to establish a self-driving car without manual controls, referred to as the Cruise Origin.

Although the world of self-driving vehicles can be somewhat daunting, given the fact that it is unfamiliar territory, it is also a new commodity that can be thought of as both convenient and helpful when choosing to travel.