In an effort to usher in a new era of fully autonomous vehicles, American officials have removed the requirement for autonomous car manufacturers to use manual self-driving controls.
Prior to this, autonomous vehicles marketed in the United States were required by crash regulations to include manual driving controls. This has made it difficult for manufacturers and even IT businesses to develop autonomous driving systems (ADS) that do not require manual driving controls.
These regulations were in place for decades but have now been repealed in the United States.
Last month, General Motors (GM) and its self-driving subsidiary Cruise submitted a request to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for the creation and launch of a fully autonomous car that does not have steering wheels or brake pedals.
As per the new standards, “cars will always have a driver’s seat, a steering wheel, and accompanying steering column, or just one front outboard passenger seating position”. However, the regulators mentioned that “for vehicles designed to be solely operated by an ADS, manually operated driving controls are logically unnecessary”.
These new restrictions were first proposed in March 2020 and are already in effect this year.
NHTSA Deputy Administrator, Steven Cliff, said, “As the driver changes from a person to a machine in ADS-equipped vehicles, the need to keep the humans safe remains the same and must be integrated from the beginning”.
Children must not sit in “driver’s” seats, according to the NHTSA.
As a result of this advancement, the auto industry may anticipate more autonomous vehicles that do not require human interaction or manual input.
To read our blog on “In 2024, Intel’s Mobileye & its partners plan to deploy self-driving shuttles in United States,” click here.
