Trump DOT proposes dropping the brake pedal requirement for fully autonomous vehicles

The Trump administration’s Department of Transportation proposed on Wednesday removing the federal requirement for brake pedals in vehicles designed to be driven exclusively by automated driving systems. The rule change, if adopted, would eliminate one of the largest remaining regulatory barriers for companies building purpose-built autonomous vehicles without traditional human controls.

The proposal updates Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No 135, which governs brake systems, to drop the mandate for hand- or foot-operated brake controls in vehicles that will never have a human driver. Other braking performance requirements, including stopping distance standards, would remain in place. The public has 30 days to comment before the DOT decides whether to approve the changes.

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison framed the move in sweeping terms. “We are at the cusp of the greatest technological revolution in vehicle technology since the innovation of the Model T,” Morrison said in a statement, adding that NHTSA is “tearing down pointless barriers to innovative designs while strengthening the fundamental safety requirements that matter.”

The biggest beneficiary is Tesla, which has spent years developing a two-seat vehicle called the Cybercab that is designed to operate without a steering wheel or pedals. The company began production at its Texas factory in early 2026 and has been running a small robotaxi service in Austin, though that fleet uses retrofitted Model Y vehicles with standard controls. Tesla has never applied for an exemption from the FMVSS standards requiring those controls, instead waiting for the rules themselves to change.

Amazon’s Zoox stands to gain as well. The company received a demonstration exemption from NHTSA in August 2025 for its purpose-built robotaxi, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals, and is now waiting on a separate commercial exemption that would allow it to charge riders. The current exemption system caps deployment at 2,500 vehicles per year, so removing the underlying FMVSS requirement would eliminate that ceiling entirely.

Companies like Waymo, which use modified versions of conventional vehicles with steering wheels and pedals intact, already operate without needing exemptions. Waymo runs more than 500,000 paid rides per week across 10 US cities. The proposed rule does not affect vehicles with manual controls.

The brake pedal proposal is the latest in a series of FMVSS updates under the Trump DOT. Earlier this year, NHTSA proposed removing requirements for windshield wiping and defogging systems, transmission shift displays, and tire placards on vehicles equipped with automated driving systems. The Biden administration laid some of the groundwork in 2022 when NHTSA finalized a rule updating occupant protection standards to accommodate vehicles without steering wheels.

Currently, any company building an autonomous vehicle that omits parts required by the FMVSS must request an individual exemption from the federal government. Even if granted, regulations restrict how many exempted vehicles can be on the road. The pattern of removing outdated equipment mandates for driverless vehicles dates back years, but the brake pedal is the most functionally significant component targeted so far.

Tesla’s Austin robotaxi service has not been without incidents. The company disclosed two crashes involving teleoperators who were remotely controlling the vehicles at low speeds, according to TechCrunch. Tesla has admitted to NHTSA that it uses teleoperators to monitor and, in rare cases, move vehicles remotely after crashes or to avoid obstacles.

The rule is a proposal, not a final regulation, and could face opposition during the public comment period from safety advocates who argue that removing physical controls reduces fallback options during system failures. Whether the DOT finalizes the change will determine how quickly companies like Tesla can deploy their purpose-built robotaxis at scale, without navigating the exemption process one vehicle at a time.