Of course Nevada was going to be the first state in the nation to grant a license to a self-driving car.

Associated Press is reporting that the “anything goes” state “issued Google the nation’s first license to test self-driving cars on public streets” after conducting demonstrations for the state DMV on the Las vegas strip.

Reinforcing every cliche possible about this story, DMV director Bruce Breslow praised the car’s safety, saying, “They’re designed to avoid distracted driving. When you’re on the Strip and there’s a huge truck with a three scantily clad women on the side, the car only sees a box.”

There are a couple of rules that come with the self-driving car’s descent upon Nevada: First, any automatic driving must be done while there are at least two passengers in the car. It’s hard to imagine the reasoning behind this since only the driver can react in the event of a glitch to take control of the car. If something goes wrong, the other passengers as just along for the ride.

On the other hand, the self-driving car has a pretty impeccable record so far, and sounds like it drives like a total grandma: “It gets honked at more often because it’s being safe,” says Breslow.

Assuming the technology does prove safer and more reliable than human drivers, it’s hard to imagine a better addition to the fleet of rental cars in the city of sin. Google could hang the car’s whole selling point on bad behavior: “Driving safe, so you don’t have to.”

[Mashable]