Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit privacy group, sent an open letter to the Assembly today urging members to defeat a bill, SB 1289, that would allow on California's roads unless the bill is amended to provide "adequate" privacy protection for the cars' users.

The letter () asks legislators to ban all data collection from Google's autonomous cars.

"While we don't propose to limit the ability of the cars to function by communicating as necessary with satellites and other devices, the collection and retention of data for marketing and other purposes should be banned," wrote Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, and John Simpson, privacy project director. "Unless the bill is amended, once again society will be forced to play catch-up in dealing with the impact of the privacy invading aspects of a new technology."

Google has been pushing ahead with its research into developing autonomous automobiles that can be sold commercially.

Earlier this month, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles gave Google the state's first license for driverless cars. It was also the first autonomous vehicle license ever issued in the United States, according to the Nevada DMV website.