The changes could ease the way for purpose-built autonomous vehicles. (Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg)
key takeaways:
- NHTSA is considering eliminating steering wheel requirements for vehicles designed to operate without human drivers.
- The agency recently removed the brake pedal requirement in fully autonomous vehicles.
- The potential rule change could benefit Tesla and other companies developing robotaxis.
The head of the top US auto safety regulator said the agency would “certainly” consider eliminating requirements that driverless cars include steering wheels, a potential boon for Tesla Inc and other robotaxi companies rethinking traditional vehicle design.
“If you’re developing a vehicle that’s never designed to be operated by a human operator, it doesn’t make sense to require manual controls,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a CNBC interview on July 9.
The comments follow NHTSA’s move last month to update federal safety standards to remove the requirement for manual brake pedals in autonomous vehicles. The change is part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to modernize rules for driverless cars, which could ease the way for purpose-built autonomous vehicles, including Tesla’s CyberCab, a two-seat electric car that lacks a steering wheel or foot pedals.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has advocated for policy changes that would support widespread commercial deployment of self-driving vehicles, including calling for a federal framework for driverless cars. The automaker, which is working to build up a robotaxi business, has started producing Cybercabs in recent months, but has not yet deployed them widely.
The robotaxi market includes several big-name players, including Amazon.com Inc. Zoox and Alphabet Inc. Waymo, the leading operator of paid robotaxi rides in the US.
Morrison did not specify the timing or other details of any potential reevaluation of the steering wheel rules. The brake pedal changes will only apply to vehicles designed to operate without a human driver, while existing rules for all other types of cars will remain unchanged.
