- NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said the agency will “absolutely” consider ending the requirement that driverless cars include steering wheels, stating plainly: “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” — a regulatory stance that, if formalized, would open the door for purpose-built autonomous vehicles lacking all traditional human control interfaces.
- The steering wheel announcement follows NHTSA’s move last month to update federal safety standards removing the mandate for manual brake pedals in autonomous vehicles, continuing a systematic deregulation effort by the Trump administration to align federal vehicle safety rules with fully autonomous vehicle architectures that were designed from the ground up without human operation in mind.
- The primary beneficiary of a steering-wheel rule change would be Tesla’s Cybercab — a two-seat electric robotaxi that lacks both a steering wheel and foot pedals, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been advocating for broadly, including through calls for a federal driverless car framework; Tesla has begun producing Cybercabs but has not yet deployed them broadly, and a steering-wheel rule change would remove a key regulatory obstacle to commercial scale deployment.
- Other robotaxi players would also benefit: Amazon’s Zoox has designed a purpose-built autonomous vehicle without a driver’s seat, and Alphabet’s Waymo — the current market leader in paid robotaxi rides in the US — has existing vehicles with human controls but is developing next-generation platforms that could leverage reduced control requirements; Morrison did not specify timing for any formal rulemaking on steering wheels.
What Happened?
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison told CNBC on Thursday that the agency would “absolutely” consider ending the requirement that autonomous vehicles include steering wheels — a rule that currently applies to all road vehicles regardless of whether they’re designed for human or autonomous operation. The comments follow NHTSA’s June update removing the manual brake pedal mandate for fully autonomous vehicles, continuing the Trump administration’s systematic approach to updating 20th-century vehicle safety standards for 21st-century autonomous vehicle architectures. Morrison did not specify timing, and any change would require formal rulemaking.
Why It Matters?
The steering wheel requirement has been one of the most concrete regulatory obstacles to purpose-built autonomous vehicle deployment in the US. Tesla’s Cybercab, Amazon’s Zoox, and next-generation robotaxi platforms have been designed without traditional human controls — and the current requirement that all street-legal vehicles include steering wheels forces either expensive design compromises or limits deployment to jurisdictions that have granted specific exemptions. Removing the requirement at the federal level would create a uniform national framework that allows purpose-built AV deployment at scale, removing the patchwork of state-level exemptions that currently governs the few edge cases where steeringless vehicles operate. Combined with last month’s brake pedal rule change, NHTSA is systematically clearing the regulatory underbrush that has prevented next-generation AV designs from reaching public roads.
What’s Next?
Any formal change to steering wheel requirements would go through notice-and-comment rulemaking, which typically takes 12-24 months under normal conditions — though the Trump administration has demonstrated willingness to accelerate rulemaking timelines for priority deregulatory actions. Watch for Tesla’s Cybercab commercial rollout timeline as a key indicator of how quickly the company believes the regulatory path will clear: if Musk signals broader deployment plans beyond the current limited production, it would suggest the company sees the regulatory change as imminent. Waymo and Zoox will also file comments in any rulemaking proceeding that will reveal their next-generation vehicle architecture plans. Safety advocates will use the comment period to push for robust testing and performance standards as the quid pro quo for removing physical human control requirements.
Source: Bloomberg
