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By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday said it was streamlining reviews of requests filed by automakers seeking to deploy self-driving vehicles without required human controls like steering wheels, brake pedals or mirrors.
NHTSA has authority to grant petitions to allow up to 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer yearly to operate on U.S. roads without required human controls but the agency has spent years reviewing several exemption petitions without taking action.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the exemption process has been "bogging developers down in unnecessary red tape that makes it impossible to keep pace with the latest technologies."
Automakers have expressed frustration with the agency’s slow reviews of autonomous vehicles. Under the law, fully self-driving vehicles do not need NHTSA approval if they have required human controls.
Manufacturers must demonstrate vehicles without human controls provide an equivalent safety level and exemptions are in the public interest.
In 2018, GM petitioned NHTSA to deploy up to 2,500 cars without steering wheels or brake pedals on U.S. roads. In 2020, GM withdrew the petition. GM in 2022 again sought NHTSA approval to deploy vehicles without human controls. GM withdrew the petition in October.
GM said last year it would halt funding of its self-driving Cruise robotaxi business after one of its robotaxis seriously injured a pedestrian and it had to pay a $500,000 criminal fine to resolve a Justice Department probe.
Ford in 2023 withdrew its self-driving petition filed in July 2021 with NHTSA, citing its decision to close its self-driving venture Argo AI in 2022.
In April, the Trump administration said it aims to speed deployment of self-driving vehicles by exempting some from certain safety requirements and easing rules requiring reporting of safety incidents and released a new framework to boost autonomous vehicles to help U.S. automakers compete with Chinese rivals.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) tentatively plans to begin offering rides on its self-driving robotaxis to the public on June 22, CEO Elon Musk said this week, but those vehicles have required human controls. NHTSA sent Tesla a letter last month asking questions about the plan.