A look at the roadblocks facing driverless cars

Google Inc. is pushing hard to bring cars driven by computers — not people — to market. To do so, the Silicon Valley giant persuaded states including California to pass laws explicitly legalizing the still-emerging technology. After all, a basic premise of driving is that a person controls the vehicle.

Though California’s rules will go into effect in June 2015, barriers remain to the widespread availability of the cars of the future, whether made by Google or traditional automakers.