Some robotaxis approved to operate without steering wheels and losing the brake pedal could be next

Federal regulators are clearing the way for robotaxis to operate without manual controls like steering wheels or, eventually, even brake pedals as the rules start to catch up to the evolving technology. Amazon's fully autonomous Zoox vehicles got approval to begin charging customers for rides in the specially designed cars that feature four inward-facing seats once they secure state and local approval. Zoox has already been offering free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco since last year. At least a couple of people were waiting at most stops for rides up and down the Vegas strip aboard one of the distinctive boxy-shaped vehicles. "It's kind of scary at first, but when I just got used to it, it's really cool and chilling. I really liked the music and how you can adjust the temperature," Chloe Huu from Ann Arbor, Michigan, said after taking a ride in a Zoox. But the projected wait time for the ride kept changing, which made it hard to plan. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also proposed a rule to allow robotaxis to operate without brake pedals, but that proposal is still pending. Administrator Jonathan Morrison said his agency wants to update the regulations to fit these fully autonomous vehicles while still acting as the "cop on the beat to make sure that this is being done right." Most vehicle safety regulations were written decades ago, always with the assumption that there would be a human driver behind the wheel. But Morrison said that things like steering wheels, windshield wipers, and side-view mirrors aren't really needed in an autonomous vehicle. The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety group raised concerns about Zoox's plan to operate without a steering wheel or other standard controls because the company didn't provide detailed evidence to show that its vehicles could operate safely on public roads. "Lots of promises, lots of glossy language, lots of 'We believe, we think we'll do this.' Yet there really was no data behind the promises, and that's really concerning to us," said Peter Kurdock, who is general counsel for the Advocates group. This article was provided by The Associated Press.