California, where innovative technology tends to hit the roads before most other places, ruled on Wednesday that self-driving cars must have a licensed driver in them in case of emergencies. California is the largest carmaker in the United States, and its industry for autonomous vehicle technology is growing quickly. The regulations were put out by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles with safety in mind, but will be open to comments from the public before being finalised, Reuters reported.

Silicon Valley tech majors Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc, as well as some traditional manufacturers such as Ford, are already testing self-driving cars in the state. The new rules aim to push them into the roll-out phase. California remains one of the few states in the US to come out with regulations for such vehicles. So far, 11 companies have permits to test self-driving cars on the state’s roads, as long as a driver is present in the vehicle as well.

Wednesday’s announcement comes among a host of other safety regulations put down for these cars, including regular reports back to the DMV, and data testing and privacy norms. Alphabet predicts it will have perfected the technology by 2020.