NHTSA To Kick Automakers In The Gut Over Plans To Delete Steering Wheels And Driver Controls

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is moving ahead with plans to revise safety rules that bar fully self-driving cars from the roads without equipment like steering wheels, pedals and mirrors, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The auto safety agency "intends to reconsider the necessity and appropriateness of its current safety standards" as applied to automated vehicles, the U.S. Transportation Department said in an 80-page update of its principles dubbed "Automated Vehicles 3.0" being made public on Thursday.

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SanJoseDriver - 10/4/2018 2:38:40 PM

+1 Boost

It will be some time before it makes sense to remove the wheel. However, side mirrors should have been taken out a long time ago for better performance and range with no downside vs. cameras.

zlives - 10/4/2018 3:59:41 PM

+3 Boost

does your indicator light ever go out, now try that answer with a much more complex apparatus. not saying these camera's and the wiring and the display device, can not be made redundant and fault tolerant... but at what cost. and what about the actual repair down time/cost.

zlives - 10/4/2018 4:02:12 PM

+2 Boost

however once the wheel disappears... don;t need camera's either.

SanJoseDriver - 10/6/2018 4:33:06 PM

+1 Boost

Dashboard screens have been digital for a long time. Are you saying a mirror is more important than your dashboard with speed, settings, etc? If screens are good enough for the dash, they're good enough for mirrors.

MDarringer - 10/4/2018 6:40:30 PM

0 Boost

AMEN and CORRECT MOVE

TomM - 10/5/2018 12:52:03 PM

+2 Boost

YOU are missing the point - by requiring a car to HAVE those things - what NHTSA is doing is making the "Driver" responsible when things go wrong -by implying that a driver MUST be available to take over in case of problems.

So - in effect - your would sue YOURSELF - if that were possible - and it is not.

Again - I have said in the past the there will not be completely self-driving vehicles without a "driver" long after I have passed - and the idea that self driving vehicles without a steering wheel and brake pedal in the car will be allowed in metro-City traffic is just not going to happen anytime remotely resembling "soon"

SanJoseDriver - 10/6/2018 4:36:35 PM

+1 Boost

Waymo is already testing rides with no backup driver, and people sit in the back seat. They're effectively already riding without a wheel, pedals, etc. What people don't understand is that improvements in self driving are incremental. There are a lot of edge cases and with each revision there are fewer. Waymo has had hundred of builds and billions of simulation miles. Their self-driving isn't going to get worse, it will only get better and more sophisticated over time.