U.S. Plans to Lift Steering Wheel Requirement for Self-Driving Cars
Claire Weston
NHTSA chief Jonathan Morrison said the agency would "absolutely" consider scrapping the mandatory steering wheel for driverless vehicles — This means → Tesla's Cybercab and similar wheel-free designs are one regulatory step closer to the road.
What exactly did NHTSA say?
Morrison told CNBC on Thursday that requiring manual controls in a vehicle designed never to be driven by a human "doesn't make any sense."
He gave no timeline and offered no specifics on how the rule review would proceed.
This means → the intent is clear, but the pace is not — this is still at the "willing to consider" stage.
Why is this coming up now?
Last month NHTSA already took a first step: it updated federal safety standards to remove the manual brake-pedal requirement for autonomous vehicles.
That change applies only to vehicles designed to operate entirely without a human driver; rules for conventional cars are unchanged.
In plain terms = regulators are dismantling the "a human must be able to take over" hardware mandate piece by piece — brake pedal first, steering wheel possibly next.
Who benefits most directly?
Tesla's Cybercab — a two-seat EV that ships with no steering wheel and no pedals. Tesla has begun production but has not yet deployed it at scale.
Dropping the steering-wheel rule would clear a key regulatory barrier to Cybercab's mass rollout.
CEO Elon Musk has long pushed for a federal-level regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles; NHTSA's signal aligns with that agenda.
Who else is on the track?
The U.S. robotaxi market already has major players: Amazon's Zoox and Alphabet's Waymo.
Waymo is the leading operator of paid robotaxi services in the U.S., running in multiple cities.
This reflects a broader point — the steering-wheel rule isn't just about Tesla. It is a pivotal regulatory gate for the entire sector's path from pilot programs to full-scale commercialization.
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