WAKE COUNTY, N.C. -- Self-driving cars are nearly ready for the road, according to the NC Department of Transportation.

The NC Turnpike Authority, an office within NCDOT, got the opportunity to test a self-driving car on the Triangle Expressway when the federal government selected them for a study last year. Officials at NCDOT say they drove a self-guided Cadillac for a thousand miles on NC 540 without incident.

"The authority wanted to evaluate how one of the vehicles performed on the Triangle Expressway in conjunction with our tolling operations as well as to see how the vehicle interacted with other motorists," said NCTA Director of Highway Operations Dennis Jernigan.

NC State Professor Seth Hollar has studied self-driving cars for years and developing a small driverless vehicle to take students around campus. He says the government's embrace of autonomous cars shows that the technology is closer than you think to becoming widespread.

​"When you say autonomous vehicles, people generally think 'I'm going to take my regular automobile and make it autonomous' but that's just the first step," said Hollar. "Highway autonomy is just one version. There's many other versions...you can go within towns or with our small, autonomous vehicles."

NCDOT officials spent more than 30 hours behind the wheel of the self-driving car.​