General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit has asked for permission to test the cars across the whole of California.

The GM subsidiary already is running an autonomous ride-hailing service in its hometown of San Francisco after testing for more than two years.

The Associated Press says the company does not have specific plans yet to expand testing in California, but applying with the Department of Motor Vehicles is a step toward entering cities such as Los Angeles.

“While this application doesn’t represent any immediate change to our testing or operations, we hope to continue working with the California DMV to safely and responsibly test our services in other cities in the future,” it quotes Cruise spokesman as saying Drew Pusateri.

If granted, the test permit won’t allow Cruise to carry non-employee passengers outside of San Francisco. Testing could be done up to 55 miles per hour statewide.

(Picture – Cruise)