The Trump administration is considering a regulatory change that could help accelerate the rollout of purpose-built robotaxis, including vehicles without steering wheels or brake pedals. On Thursday, the Department of Transportation proposed updating federal vehicle safety rules to no longer require brake pedals in vehicles designed to operate exclusively with automated driving systems. If adopted, the change would remove a significant hurdle for companies such as Tesla and Zoox, which are developing autonomous vehicles without traditional driver controls.

What Does This Regulatory Change Actually Mean for Robotaxi Companies?

Currently, companies that want to deploy vehicles missing federally required equipment must obtain government exemptions, and those exemptions come with strict limits on how many vehicles can be put on the road. The new regulations would allow companies like Zoox to scale quickly without these restrictions. At present, Zoox is waiting on an exemption on driver-control requirements so it can produce 100 robotaxis per week. The proposal is now open for public comment for 30 days before any final decision is made.

The move is part of a broader effort by federal regulators to modernize vehicle rules for the autonomous era. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has previously proposed eliminating requirements tied to features such as windshield defoggers, wipers, and tire placards for certain self-driving vehicles. During the Biden administration, regulators finalized a rule allowing autonomous vehicles to operate without steering wheels.

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a statement that the latest proposal is an effort to tear down "pointless barriers to innovative designs". Multiple autonomous vehicle companies have voiced their support for the NHTSA proposal through public comment filings. Both Waymo and Zoox wrote in April that the revised regulations would reduce their compliance costs, while Tesla wrote that it would like the agency to consider adding more vehicle types to the pedal exemption.

How to Understand the Safety Concerns Experts Are Raising?

• Passenger and Emergency Responder Confusion: The American Automobile Association said in its public comment to NHTSA that while it supports easing regulations for fully autonomous vehicles, transparency is key, especially for passengers and emergency responders who may not know how to operate a vehicle without such controls.
• Lack of Safety Standards for New Technology: Philip Koopman, an emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, noted that while NHTSA is busy removing unintended barriers, there are no Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) parts that are specific to autonomous vehicles, and it is long past time to see movement in adding new safety standards relevant to this new technology.
• Reliability Requirements Before Removal: Dan O'Dowd, founder of The Dawn Project, an autonomous vehicle safety advocacy group, told Business Insider that robotaxis should be required to meet certain reliability standards before they can have no physical controls, arguing that Tesla's robotaxis are nowhere near the reliability level required to remove the brake pedal.

"It is appropriate to modify the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to remove unintended barriers to driverless vehicle deployment by removing dependencies on the presence of a human driver, which this latest proposal does," said Philip Koopman.

Philip Koopman, Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety echoed these concerns, stating that NHTSA presents no research or analysis of the potential safety impacts of removing the display and provides no discussion of the possible concerns not only for passengers but also potentially for first responders who may need to know the potential for the vehicle to be in gear following a collision or other system failure.

Which Companies Stand to Benefit Most From This Change?

The proposal could be especially significant for Tesla's Cybercab and Amazon-owned Zoox, both of which are developing robotaxis without conventional driver controls. Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox did not immediately respond to requests for comment at the time the article was published. However, their earlier public comment filings to NHTSA indicate strong support for the regulatory modernization effort.

The timing of this proposal reflects a broader shift in how federal regulators approach autonomous vehicle technology. Rather than treating self-driving cars as modified versions of traditional vehicles, the new approach recognizes that purpose-built robotaxis may not need features designed for human drivers. This distinction could unlock significant cost savings and manufacturing efficiencies for companies that have invested heavily in fully autonomous platforms.

As the 30-day public comment period unfolds, the debate between innovation advocates and safety-focused critics will likely intensify. The outcome could reshape the competitive landscape for autonomous vehicle deployment in the United States, determining whether companies can scale their robotaxi operations quickly or whether additional safety guardrails will slow the rollout of vehicles without traditional driver controls.