California regulators for the first time yesterday (February 26th) approved testing of self-driving cars without having a backup driver in the vehicle. They've until now only been allowed on public roads in the state if someone was in the car who could take the wheel if there was an emergency. While the vehicles will no longer need to have drivers in them, they will still have to have a remote operator monitoring at all times who'll be ready to take over if needed. While this is good news for companies developing driverless cars, many of whom are located in California, not everyone is one board. The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog blasted the rules change, saying the cars haven't been proven to be safe enough yet to be on public roads without a backup driver. Its privacy and technology director, John Simpson, said, "It will be just like playing a video game, except lives will be at stake."