USDOT wants more self-driving cars without pedals or steering wheels

The US Department of Transportation wants to make it easier for automakers and tech companies to deploy self-driving cars without traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals. In a letter sent to stakeholders, the department said it would streamline reviews of requests for exemptions from safety rules requiring vehicles to have steering wheels, pedals, and mirrors — parts that purpose-built autonomous vehicles often lack.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has the authority to exempt 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer, but the agency has spent years reviewing some exemption requests without taking action. Now, NHTSA says the process will take “months rather than years.” US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement that the exemption process has been “bogging developers down in unnecessary red tape that makes it impossible to keep pace with the latest technologies.”

Companies interested in manufacturing and selling autonomous vehicles without steering wheel and pedals need to request exemptions from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which is the government’s official checklist for everything a car needs before it can be sold to customers. To date, only one company, Nuro, has received an FMVSS exemption for its low-speed delivery robots that aren’t large enough for human passengers. General Motors tried for over two years to get an exemption for its driverless Cruise vehicles before eventually giving up. (Last year, GM said it would stop funding Cruise.)

This isn’t the first time the government has signaled a willingness to make it easier to deploy fully autonomous vehicles. Last year, the Biden administration announced a more streamlined “exemption pathway” for vehicles with automated driving systems. In exchange, NHTSA wanted more data from the companies that operate driverless cars, arguing that greater transparency is needed to foster public trust in the technology.

But the Trump administration does not appear as interested in forcing companies to cough up more data. There was no mention of data disclosure in NHTSA’s two-page letter to stakeholders. And the administration is reportedly looking to quash a Biden-era transparency rule that requires companies operating vehicles with driver assist, as well as self-driving cars, to report crashes and injuries to the federal government.