June 29, 2026 - NHTSA Proposal Would Eliminate AV Brake Pedals

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for June 29, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry. 

Current federal motor vehicle safety standards in the U.S. require the installation of a variety of hardware components, including control pedals for braking and acceleration, steering wheels, rearview mirrors, lights, braking systems, seat belts, airbags, and more. For a vehicle that is capable of driving itself without a human operator, many of these components obviously aren't needed. For more than a decade, there have been proposals to update the regulations, which were written before automated driving systems became a reality, to account for this new type of vehicle.

There is a process in the FMVSS that allows manufacturers to request a waiver from certain rules. For AVs, this would include the requirement of pedals, a steering wheel, and mirrors. When granted, the waivers allow the production and deployment of up to 2,500 vehicles per year for two years. So far, the only company to receive such a waiver is Nuro, which received a waiver in 2020 for its R2 delivery vehicle, which was not capable of carrying passengers. GM applied twice, once for a version of the Chevrolet Bolt and later for the Cruise Origin robotaxi. A waiver for the Origin was expected to be granted by the end of 2023, until a pedestrian crash with a Cruise vehicle in San Francisco caused the whole program to be paused and ultimately cancelled. 

NHTSA has now launched an official rule-making process that, if completed, would eliminate the need for manual brake pedals in automated vehicles. Vehicles will still need to meet the existing braking system performance requirements, but hand- or foot-operated pedals can be removed. That still leaves accelerator pedals, steering wheels, and mirrors, which will presumably be part of future rule-making efforts. Obviously, this only applies to vehicles that are exclusively automated. Vehicles that can be human-operated with the option to engage an automated mode would still need brake pedals. 

Thanks for listening.