(Bloomberg) -- Google Inc.’s artificial-intelligence system willbe interpreted as a driver by federal regulators, a step towardcompliance that would help the tech giant’s self-driving cars hitU.S. roads.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreeswith Google that its cars “will not have a ‘driver’ in thetraditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the lastmore than 100 years,” the agency said in a Feb. 4 letter to ChrisUrmson, director of the company’s self-driving car project. Googleasked NHTSA in a November letter for interpretation of safetystandards in cars it seeks to produce without traditional controls,such as a steering wheel or throttle and brake pedals.

“If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive thevehicle, it is more reasonable to identify the ‘driver’ as whatever(as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving,” PaulHemmersbaugh, NHTSA’s chief counsel, said in the letter. InGoogle’s case, its self-driving system “is actually driving thevehicle,” he wrote.

Google is examining NHTSA’s letter and will come up with a planfor how it proceeds, said Johnny Luu, a company spokesman.

Next step

“The government will have to study the capabilities of Google’sautonomous tech and be convinced it doesn’t represent a danger,”Karl Brauer, an analyst with researcher Kelley Blue Book, said inan e-mail. “That might take a while if it involves a permanentchange to the vehicle code, but the process of getting an exemptionwould be easier and quicker.”

Alphabet Inc.’s Google isgetting mixed signals from federal and state regulators on the pathto putting its self- driving cars on the road. California has said the cars aren’t smartenough yet to be sold to the public without a steeringwheel, brake pedals, and a licensed driver behind the wheel. U.S.Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx last month said automakerswill be allowed to apply for exemptions to certain rules as part ofan approach to ensure government doesn’t stand in the way oftechnological progress.

NHTSA sees promise in autonomous-driving technologies helping tobring down the more than 30,000 deaths from motor-vehicle crashesin the U.S. every year. Foxx last month announced a a $4 billiongrant program over 10 years to fund pilot projects with automatedvehicles.

--With assistance from Jeff Plungis.

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