The US has issued federal regulations for cars without steering wheels and pedals.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has introduced a new “voluntary national assessment and oversight scheme” for self-driving cars – this document will eventually contribute to the release of cars with full autopilot on public roads in the country. But to do this, developers of autonomous driving technologies will have to disclose more information to the authorities.

Image source: tesla.com

The first federal set of regulations for the United States was announced last year, called the Driver Assistance Vehicle Safety, Transparency and Evaluation Program (AV STEP). Under these rules, NHTSA will be able to authorize the sale of vehicles without traditional controls, such as pedals and steering wheels, while setting an annual limit on the number of exceptions to traditional vehicle safety requirements. The procedure for releasing fully unmanned vehicles onto public roads is greatly simplified. In return, the agency is asking companies that operate self-driving vehicles to provide more information—transparency will help strengthen public trust in autopilot technology.

By now, it has so happened that the US federal authorities have withdrawn themselves and faded into the background, relegating the development of rules for the deployment of unmanned vehicles to the state level. The federal law has been stuck in Congress for seven years as lawmakers disagree on a number of issues, including safety, liability and the appropriate number of exceptions to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). In its original form, the FMVSS specifies what a car needs to be able to be put on the market, including a steering wheel, pedals and side mirrors—things that self-driving cars no longer need.

Each company can ask the federal government for up to 2,500 exceptions to these rules, but only Nuro, a developer of delivery robots too small to accommodate a human, has fully succeeded. For two years, General Motors tried to get an exception for Cruise cars, but eventually abandoned this idea and announced the reorganization of its autonomous vehicle division. The further fate of AV STEP under the new president still seems uncertain: according to one version, Donald Trump may cancel the requirement for autopilot developers to disclose information, which will benefit one of its largest supporters, Elon Musk, who In 2026, it intends to roll out the Cybercab robotaxi service.