By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday proposed a new process to streamline reviews of waivers filed by automakers seeking to deploy self-driving vehicles without the need for human controls such as steering wheels or brake pedals.
NHTSA has the authority to grant petitions to allow up to 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer to operate on U.S. roads without requiring human checks, but the agency has spent years reviewing several petitions without taking action. Efforts in Congress to make it easier to operate vehicles without human control on America’s roads have been stymied for years.
Automakers have expressed frustration with the agency’s slow reviews of autonomous vehicles. By law, fully self-driving vehicles do not need NHTSA approval if they require human control.
The industry is under scrutiny after a pedestrian was seriously injured by a General Motors (NYSE:) cruise vehicle in October 2023. NHTSA has opened a number of investigations into self-driving vehicles, including Cruise, Alphabet’s Waymo (NASDAQ:) and Amazon.com’s Zoox (NASDAQ:).
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents GM, Toyota (NYSE:), Volkswagen (ETR:), Hyundai (OTC:) and other major automakers said the proposal “will provide an avenue to significantly expand the number of commercial AVs in the US. We urgently need a regulatory framework for AVs in the US, so we will not cede leadership to China and other countries.”
Reuters and other media have reported that President-elect Donald Trump wants to ease implementation barriers to self-driving vehicles. Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, said in October that the automaker would roll out driverless self-driving services by 2025.
NHTSA opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with full self-driving (FSD) in October after four reported collisions, including a fatal crash in 2023.
In 2018, GM asked the NHTSA to deploy up to 2,500 cars without steering wheels or brake pedals on U.S. roads. In 2020, GM withdrew the petition.
GM again sought NHTSA approval in 2022 to deploy vehicles without human control. GM withdrew the petition in October and announced this month that it would exit the Cruise robotaxi business.
Ford (NYSE:) last year withdrew its self-driving car petition filed in July 2021 with NHTSA, citing the decision to close its self-driving venture Argo AI in 2022.
