The U.S. Department of Transportation is pushing regulatory changes to remove the requirement for brake pedals in vehicles designed to operate only with automated driving systems.

TechCrunch reported on Wednesday that if the proposal is finalised it is expected to lower commercialisation barriers for companies developing fully autonomous vehicles without steering wheels or pedals, such as Tesla and Zoox.

The plan focuses on not applying parts requirements under the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) that assume a human driver to self-driving-only vehicles. The scope could expand beyond brake pedals to include some devices and overall design standards required by the existing regulatory framework. The department plans to decide whether to approve the change after a 30-day public comment period.

Currently, companies seeking to develop self-driving vehicles that lack mandatory components under FMVSS must apply separately to the federal government for an exemption. Even with an exemption, there is a limit on the number of vehicles that can be put on the road. If requirements for equipment such as brake pedals are removed, companies can bring forward deployment timelines without going through exception approvals.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) believes the change could speed up the adoption of self-driving cars. Jonathan Morrison (조너선 모리슨), head of NHTSA, said in a statement that vehicle technology is at the threshold of the biggest technological revolution since the Ford Model T and that the regulatory framework must be redesigned for the United States to take the lead. He said that under Secretary Sean Duffy (숀 더피), unnecessary barriers would be removed while key safety requirements would be strengthened and self-driving developers would continue to be held responsible for safety performance.

The move follows a recent series of rollbacks in self-driving car regulations by the Trump administration. Late last year, NHTSA proposed revising some standards related to windshield wipers, defogging devices and tyre markings. The direction is to remove requirements that assume a human driver from self-driving-only vehicles.

The Biden administration also pursued regulatory changes in the same direction. At the time, NHTSA proposed rules allowing the operation of self-driving vehicles without steering wheels and then finalised them. This time, it seeks to exclude brake pedals from the standards as well.

Tesla has been cited as a potential direct beneficiary. Tesla has been developing a two-seat vehicle, the Cybercab, without a steering wheel or pedals over the past few years. Tesla has not yet applied for an exemption from FMVSS that require those controls. Elon Musk has repeatedly said he will deploy the vehicle across the United States if regulatory approval is granted.

Tesla has separately operated a small-scale robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, for about a year. Early in the service it placed safety drivers in the front seats, but later gradually removed them and shifted the vehicles to drive "without supervision". Tesla acknowledged to NHTSA that in rare situations after a collision or when obstacle avoidance is needed, remote operators move the vehicles at low speed or monitor them.

Amazon-owned Zoox is also a stakeholder in the regulatory change. Zoox applied for and received approval last year for an exemption from FMVSS to test its purpose-built robotaxi. It later applied again for an additional exemption for commercial operations and is currently awaiting a decision.

By contrast, companies like Waymo that convert standard vehicles for robotaxi use face a different situation. Because they use vehicles that retain manual controls, such as the Jaguar I-Pace, they can already deploy as many robotaxis as they want. The proposal is therefore likely to have a bigger impact on companies designing self-driving-only vehicles from scratch than on firms using converted existing cars.

The key question ahead is whether the U.S. Department of Transportation will finalise the rule change after the public comment period. If the revision passes, self-driving-only vehicles would be able to enter roads under a more general approval process, rather than an exemption-driven system. As a result, commercialisation timelines for Tesla's Cybercab and Zoox's purpose-built robotaxi are expected to be directly affected by regulatory changes.