Earlier today Governor Jerry Brown stopped in to Google's Mountain View headquarters to sign a bill that will soon allow Californians to be even more apathetic while behind the wheel of a car. Thanks to the bill, authored by Los Angeles Senator Alex Padilla, the California DMV will start issuing permits to operate driverless robot cars by 2015. Naturally, Governor Brown was chauffeured to the event in a Google self-driving Prius.

Brown stepped out of the passenger seat telling reporters, "Only way to go, guys," and later described the Google Prius as "science fiction becoming tomorrow's reality," which is a total 74-year-old guy thing to say. State Senator Padilla called it "a dream bill," saying it would save lives, create jobs and reduce emissions all at once.

Under the bill, which was passed back in August, the California DMV will need to set up the rules for who is allowed to get behind the wheel of these self-driving vehicles in the next three years. Nevada, where there are fewer people to run over, also recently issued their first autonomous vehicle license to one of Google's robot cars.

Google Chief Nerd Sergey Brin, [Ed. note: Your SFist editor's heart breaks after seeing Sergey sport Crocs.] whose unceasing optimism for the future never disappoints, told the crowd that he could "count on one hand" how many years before the technology is widely available and none of us have to actually look at where we're going anymore. In the meantime, Brin used the opportunity to dream up all the possible uses for a vehicle that doesn't require a sober operator, saying he thought the cars would be great for the blind (because even the blind need to go on taco bell runs), the "elderly" (because they're terrible at driving), and those who are "too intoxicated" — which will be all of us once no one has to worry about driving home.

Previously: Google's Robot Car Passes Driver's License Test In Nevada,
[NBCBayArea]
[SacBee]