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The US Department of Transportation is moving to scrap requirements for brake pedals in driverless vehicles, a step that could clear the way for companies including Waymo and Tesla Inc. to put more robotaxis on American roads.
The DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed updates to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards that would remove the mandate for manual brake pedals in vehicles designed to operate exclusively without a human driver, according to a notice made public on Thursday. The change would not apply to other types of automobiles, which would still have to have brake pedals.
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The change, which is part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to modernize standards for driverless cars, could ease the path for purpose-built autonomous vehicles including Tesla’s Cybercab, a two-seat electric car that lacks a steering wheel or foot pedals. The robotaxi market includes a number of big-name players, including Amazon.com Inc.’s Zoox and Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, the leading operator of paid robotaxi rides in the US.
Current regulations pose hurdles for companies that want to field autonomous vehicles designed without certain controls. Even so, it remains unclear whether regulators plan to adjust rules related to steering wheels or other equipment.
The requirements have in the past been a hurdle for auto manufacturers including General Motors Co., which ceased work on its Origin AV two years ago in part due to regulatory uncertainty linked to the vehicle’s lack of certain manual controls.
Yet while the DOT can set or remove specific rules through NHTSA that could ease approval for driverless vehicles, wider adoption is still limited by technological factors, investment costs and the readiness of individual passengers.
Rethinking Equipment
NHTSA’s new proposal, which confirms plans reported earlier by Bloomberg News, is part of a broader effort by the agency to remove what it says are unnecessary barriers hindering autonomous vehicles. Further changes are expected to follow.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, one of President Donald Trump’s biggest donors, has advocated for federal policy changes that would facilitate broad commercial deployment of self-driving vehicles, including calling for a federal framework for driverless cars. The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, which represents companies including Waymo and Zoox, has similarly urged lawmakers to enact a federal policy framework.
Last year, Musk lobbied lawmakers in Washington to help clear a path for autonomous vehicles and weighed in on revisions to a bill that would have helped set a basic regulatory framework.
Tesla launched its long-awaited robotaxi network last year in Austin with a limited number of Model Y SUVs. It has since expanded gradually, adding service in Dallas and Houston with a total fleet of fewer than 100 vehicles in the state. The company also operates a non-autonomous rideshare network in California’s San Francisco Bay Area.
Waymo operates a fleet of thousands of robotaxis with customer rides in 11 cities and plans to expand to 20 cities by the end of the year.
The proposed rule on brake pedals won’t affect other braking performance requirements such as strict stopping-distance standards, NHTSA said in a statement. Existing standard requirements will also not change for automated driving system-equipped vehicles with manual driving controls.
The move received mixed reviews from industry experts.
Jeff Farrah, chief executive officer of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, commended the decision by NHTSA as a step toward facilitating “American leadership in autonomous vehicles.”
But Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said that “the performance of AVs needs to be regulated to be demonstrably safe before safety systems, such as a brake pedal, are removed.”
And William Wallace, the director of safety advocacy for Consumer Reports, criticized NHTSA’s “regulatory carve-outs” instead of developing “strong and comprehensive autonomous vehicle safety standards, as other countries are doing.”
Historically, manufacturers have had to seek exemptions from NHTSA to deploy autonomous vehicles that run afoul of federal standards, many of which were enacted decades ago before the advent of automated driving systems. NHTSA has updated a number of those standards and says companies in the future may not need to seek exemptions once its modernization push is complete.
“While this update ensures AVs can physically stop when commanded, NHTSA is separately developing safety performance requirements for AVs in real-world driving scenarios,” the agency said in its statement. “NHTSA will continue to use its broad defect enforcement authority to investigate unsafe ADS behavior and oversee recalls.”
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