The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has scrapped a law requiring cars to have things like a steering wheel and pedals.
That is purely American news, but also an important step on the road to autonomous cars. According to Automotive News, what is concretely removed from the table is the assumption that every car has a driver’s seat, one passenger seat, a steering wheel and a steering column. This is mainly in the context of crash tests, but it is in any case a striking change.
The existing rules did not prohibit autonomous cars, but assumed that these cars always have controls. The move by the NHTSA is quite striking, because this American government agency is usually certainly not the fastest when it comes to legalizing new techniques. For example, the adaptive headlights that we have had in Europe for almost ten years have only been allowed in the US since last month.