“Apologies, human. I did not detect you.”

INTERWEB colossus Google has its sights set on changing more than just the virtual world – it's just managed to get a licence to use its prototype driverless cars on real roads in Nevada.

The firm's prototype Toyota Prius has already covered 140,000 miles in testing, its only accident happening when it was hit from behind by a living, breathing driver in another car. But until now Google has always had to have a person sitting behind the wheel of its prototype, just in case it has a HAL 9000 moment...

Now, though, that's changed. The new licence means the car can be tested without its human safety net. Admittedly it's only allowed in Nevada, where open spaces are so large that if you put a brick on the accelerator of a normal car and called it “driverless” it still probably wouldn't hit anything. However, other states including California, are also mulling similar law changes to allow automatons to use the roads.

What does it mean for bikes? Well, experiments with riderless bikes haven't been totally successful so far so the chances are we'll still be needed for a while. Will the robot cars we'll one day share the roads with be any better at seeing motorcycles than real drivers are? Let's hope so.

What do you think? Will removing drivers add danger (“Hello, helpdesk... Gone haywire at 90mph you say? Have you tried turning it off and on again?”) or by cutting out the human element will roads actually become a safer place for bikes?