EVwire brief: The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun rulemaking to remove the requirement for a manual brake pedal in vehicles designed to be driven only by automated systems.
The proposal, the fifth update under the Department of Transportation's Automated Vehicle Framework, would lift the brake-control mandate for cars that no human will ever drive. Strict stopping-distance and braking-performance standards stay in place. Existing rules still apply to autonomous vehicles that retain manual controls.
"If we want America to lead the way, we have to reimagine our regulatory framework. That’s why under Secretary Sean Duffy’s AV Framework, NHTSA is tearing down pointless barriers to innovative designs while strengthening the fundamental safety requirements that matter and holding AV developers accountable for safe performance."
Most autonomous vehicles deployed in the US today, like Waymo’s Jaguar I-PACE fleet, are still equipped with traditional manual controls
NHTSA shared the update on X. Here's the agency's post on X:
Affected vehicles would still have to prove they can stop on command, meeting the same stopping-distance criteria through alternative testing. NHTSA said it is separately developing safety-performance requirements for how automated vehicles behave in real-world driving, and that it retains its defect-enforcement authority to investigate unsafe systems and order recalls.
The agency describes the change as a commonsense step under Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's AV Framework, part of a broader rethink of equipment a driverless car does not need, in the same vein as windshield wipers or rearview mirrors.
The Tesla Cybercab is designed to operate with zero manual controls
Context:
The timing is striking for Tesla. Its Cybercab robotaxi, which began production in February, ships with no steering wheel and no pedals, a design built around Full Self-Driving with no manual override. A federal standard that no longer demands a brake pedal for driverless-only vehicles removes one of the regulatory questions hanging over the vehicle.
Tesla has maintained that the Cybercab meets existing federal safety standards without needing an exemption. Removing the manual brake-pedal requirement would square a pedal-less design with a rule that has long assumed one.
Source: NHTSA
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