US Weighs Removing Steering Wheel Requirement for Driverless Cars

The move would benefit companies such as Tesla, which are already designing in that direction.

Omar Gallaga

Omar Gallaga has covered technology, digital culture and other topics for outlets including CNET, NPR, WIRED, Texas Monthly, MSNBC, Consumer Reports, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic and the Austin American-Statesman, where he was a longtime tech reporter, editor and podcaster. He lives in the Texas Hill Country.

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If the head of the nation's auto safety oversight has his way, self-driving cars won't need brake pedals or steering wheels in the near future.

In an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box on Thursday, Jonathan Morrison, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said he supports innovation in autonomous vehicles, including doing away with some features that are currently mandated.

"If you're developing a vehicle that is designed never to be driven by a human operator, does it make any sense to require manual control for the vehicle?" Morrison said. "I think the answer is pretty clear there."

Some self-driving cars, such as models intended for ridesharing fleets from companies like Uber and Tesla, are already steering in that direction, since they aren't designed for human driving. Some, such as the cars used by Waymo, can be taken over by remote human drivers.

Removing brake pedals and steering wheels, however, would mean that a human could not take over if an autonomous car stalls or a dangerous situation arises that requires intervention.

Makers of autonomous vehicles have been urging action on changing requirements for driverless cars since at least 2019. In 2022, NHTSA revised rules for some types of self-driving vehicles on how they must be designed. Morrison's comments and recent action on requirements for brake pedals suggest it's now happening.

Morrison said NHTSA is responsible for policing the industry, but doesn't want to stand in the way of progress.

"The promise that these technologies offer, it's really undeniable," he said. "We want to see it succeed, we want to see it develop. That said, it needs to be done right."

Other NHTSA concerns with driverless cars

In the interview, Morrison also discussed a letter sent to autonomous car makers about incidents in which those vehicles have stalled or been slow to move out of the way of emergency responders.

Morrison said that those incidents are rare, "but every single one of these circumstances goes too far."

He also answered questions about whether his agency has concerns about the prevalence of Chinese lidar sensor technology, which is used by almost 90% of autonomous vehicles globally. CNBC recently investigated the risks of this type of tech, largely manufactured in China.

Morrison didn't specifically mention any action NHTSA is taking on that, but said, "That is an area of concern, I think, across the government."