Feds Are Looking to Remove a Major Roadblock for Driverless Robotaxis: The Steering Wheel

The head of NHTSA wants to remove steering wheel requirements for cars that are only intended to be driverless.

May Mobility's driverless Toyota Sienna minivan

Photo by: May Mobility

Nico DeMattia

By: Nico DeMattia

Jul 9, at 6:40pm ET

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Almost every car on the road requires a steering wheel at the moment. That sounds obvious, but with the advent of driverless cars and tech billionaires claiming that full self-driving is already here, it's easy to see how the public can get confused. Regardless of how capable Waymos or any other robotaxis are, though, they still need to have traditional controls inside the car, per federal regulations. That might not last long, though, as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wants to end steering wheel requirements for cars that are only intended to be self-driving.

“If you’re developing a vehicle that is designed never to be driven by a human operator, it doesn’t make any sense to require manual controls,” Jonathan Morrison, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told CNBC in a recent interview.

This comes just a month after the NHTSA said it would remove the physical brake pedal requirement for autonomous vehicles. It doesn't stop there, either. Last year, the NHTSA recently announced a rule that would allow automakers to request exemption from Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) requirements altogether, if they plan on testing purely driverless vehicles. Production of those vehicles is currently limited to 2,500, though.

Tesla Cybercab Without Steering Wheel Test

Photo by: Tesla

It seems that the feds want to remove all physical control roadblocks for self-driving car companies, like Tesla and Waymo, to make their lives easier. Interestingly, this news follows New Jersey's newly proposed bill that would not only increase sensor hardware requirements for self-driving cars, but also increase the amount of testing they go through.

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Ironically, Morrison also told CNBC that the NHTSA is issuing a "call to action" for autonomous vehicle companies to make sure that their cars don't block first responder access to emergency situations. He then highlights the danger of companies remotely operating robotaxis to move them out of the way for emergency personnel. So if an autonomous vehicle is blocking first responders, but remotely operating them brings its own danger, wouldn't it be really helpful if it had a steering wheel to move the car?

I totally understand the idea of giving innovation room to breath by not slapping unnecessary regulations on everything. But steering wheels and pedals aren't doing that. They're mostly drive-by-wire now anyway. In a future when fully autonomous vehicles are actually feasible in the real world? Sure, then remove those regulations for such cars. But while self-driving technology is still undergoing heavy testing, let's keep the safeguards, shall we?

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