https://www.slashgear.com/2204680/dot-law-change-no-brake-pedals-self-driving-cars/
Autonomous vehicles have been a big talking point in the United States as Waymo spreads to more cities and Tesla's Cybercab service launch looms overhead. In June 2026, the Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed changes to federal regulations that would allow the growing number of autonomous vehicles in the United States to forgo brake pedals.
As it stands, automakers building autonomous vehicles without brake pedals or other components must request an exemption from the federal government — and if granted, these vehicles must be limited to 2,500 per year. This proposed change will get autonomous vehicles on the road faster, with fewer obstacles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is on board, with Administrator Jonathan Morrison stating that autonomous vehicles are the greatest innovation "since the Model T."
"NHTSA is tearing down pointless barriers to innovative designs while strengthening the fundamental safety requirements that matter and holding AV developers accountable for safe performance," Morrison said (via TechCrunch). The public has until July 27th to comment on the proposal before the DOT officially approves these changes.
Right now, most autonomous vehicles have a steering wheel, accelerator, and brake pedals, but even popular brands like Waymo have been considering ditching these components — federal regulations are the only thing in the way. One company that would benefit greatly from the DOT's changes is Tesla, given the upcoming Cybercab.
Currently, Tesla's robotaxi service has remained a small operation in Austin, Texas, with human monitors in the front seat. CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly blamed regulatory red tape for the delayed rollout of the Cybercab, which was first revealed at the "We, Robot" event in 2024. The NHTSA has been consistently investigating Tesla's Full Self-Driving mode for false claims and possible shortcomings, which could be prolonging the process. California has also claimed that FSD is engaging in false advertising and demanded that it change the name.
Early Cybercab prototypes featured no steering wheel or pedals, as well as a cabin with just two rear seats. The first production Cybercab came out of the Giga Texas facility in April 2026, despite a delay in the unsupervised driving feature. Now, a new Tesla document states that the controversial vehicle typically won't have a steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedals. This means Tesla will need DOT's changes to go through to avoid more delays in its Cybercab services.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday July 06, @01:44PM (24 children)
1. Instead of having self-driving vehicles going every which way, how about we put them on some very specific pathways placed on the ground, along the most popular routes that people want to travel along.
2. Instead of having a bunch of tiny vehicles, why don't we use larger vehicles that can hold a lot more people per engine. And maybe be able to hook a bunch of these vehicles together end-to-end to accommodate more people in a single trip.
3. Let's put these vehicles on a fairly frequent schedule so people can know that they can rely on it to get from where they get on these vehicles to where they want to get off.
Oh, bugger, I'm reinventing a subway system again, aren't I?
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday July 06, @01:53PM (6 children)
Are you an Adam Something fan? He's posted quite a few videos about how tech bros really like reinventing trains and buses, very very badly.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday July 06, @04:43PM (5 children)
Yes, I am a fan of his, in large part because every time that a new form of transit is proposed it just turns out trains are better.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Monday July 06, @06:45PM (4 children)
I absolutely HATE trains, but I'm American. Our train service must be the absolutely WORST in the entire world. Had to ride them to Chicago for work occasionally, and actually paid for a ride to St. Louis [mcgrewbooks.com] once, a quarter century ago. Thirty two damned dollars one way! I can get there and back in my EV for five bucks (10¢ per kWh) in far more comfort. Highway robbery.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Tuesday July 07, @01:19AM (2 children)
Don't worry, Germany (via DB) is working to catch up. It really varies by country, ZSSK (Slovakia) is consistently 5-30 minutes late (sometimes longer) but they're very consistent about it whereas DB is inconsistently late: May be an hour late, may be five hours late, may not turn up at all. MAV (Hungary) OTOH is more of a lottery, will it make it all the way or break down halfway? And Trenitalia... well, it's Trenitalia :-).
For a good backgrounder on how US trains ended up in the state they are, Climate Town [youtube.com] has the details. I wish he'd do one on DB, Adam Something is entertaining but tends to play fast and loose with the facts a bit.
(Score: 2, Funny) by pTamok on Tuesday July 07, @01:00PM (1 child)
I like the Indian Railways interpretation of a timetable.
The departure time printed in a timetable is the time before which it is guaranteed that the train will not depart.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Tuesday July 07, @01:39PM
That raises an interesting point, what are you expecting from the trains in a particular country? If the trains are run on a, shall we say flexible schedule like ZSSK then it's fine, you know things will be a bit late but you'll still get there. Where it becomes a pain is when it's a complete lottery whether the train you want is actually running or not (NZ Rail), or where you simply expect the train to be exactly on time but isn't (DB). The odd thing with DB is that (a) they used to be very punctual and (b) they're surrounded by countries whose train services (SBB, OBB, Ceske Drahy, PKP) are what you'd expect to be getting from DB but aren't.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 07, @02:52AM
US rail service is indeed pretty lousy by international standards outside of a few specific areas (mostly the Bos-Wash corridor and the Bay Area). Passenger rail did get a bunch of funding during the Biden administration's infrastructure plan which they put towards studying lots of improvements that could be made to it, including many short convenient regional routes, but a lot of them got the axe after the election.
But there's no rule saying it has to suck. And the revenue for it has been up since a lot more people started taking trains. And the more people you have on the rails, the less traffic you have to contend with, which is also useful for drivers.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 5, Touché) by VLM on Monday July 06, @01:55PM (8 children)
Crime rate is too high to use in the areas dense enough to require mass transit.
Essentially every $ spent on self driving cars is to avoid intentionally created high crime areas.
The other problem is zero'd cargo capacity and scheduling issues. My local bus service takes about an hour per trip with a mandatory transfer downtown (if you don't need a transfer, you're already so close to your destination it would be faster to walk). The bus averages under 4 MPH door-to-door with random dispatch and arrival. If schedules don't line up, a trip CAN take up to two hours (or in theory as short as a half hour if they do line up) either way incredibly expensive for a culture that already has about zero leisure time.
Other than that, a good idea.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aafcac on Monday July 06, @04:02PM (2 children)
For now, I could totally see a future where trains and buses are for ferrying people from a handful of transit stations scattered about a city in convenient areas with Johnny cabs being used for the last mile where there isn't enough need/space for a larger bus.
(Score: 5, Touché) by gnuman on Monday July 06, @06:45PM (1 child)
Around here, people either take one of the rental bikes or walk. A mile is what? 15 minutes tops *walking*? Maybe 20 or 30 minutes if you have to use a mobility device, like a walker? What is this aversion to actually walking a few steps?
You know what is a sign of a screwed up society? Driving to a gym to walk on a treadmill. YMMV.
(Score: 3, Touché) by aafcac on Monday July 06, @07:47PM
There's more to it than that, like if you're carrying heavy bags, have mobility problems, don't have 15-20 minutes to do the walking or have to go further than a mile. Not to mention the days when the weather sucks or it's dark out. And, I think that it would mostly be people going further than that, as you need a certain concentration of people in order to make the scheme actually work out.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06, @04:32PM (2 children)
Crime rate is a very strange and US-centric problem.
I mean, if you have a society where you can't travel past the suburbs because of crime, things are pretty fscked up.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mcgrew on Monday July 06, @06:49PM (1 child)
If you have a society where you can't travel past the suburbs because of crime, things are pretty fscked up.
We have a society where people are being brainwashed into unreasoning fear by the mainstream media, who are all owned by the 1% and the .01% who all want America to become a police state.
The Stupid-Ass Voter Evisceration act: SAVE Trump and his family from prison
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06, @09:33PM
This ^^^
GP wrote:
> Crime rate is too high to use in the areas dense enough to require mass transit.
I say that GP has allowed himself to be scared out of his wits, for no good reason at all, other than perhaps being swayed by misinformation repeated over and over?
Millions of NYC folk use mass transit daily and the crime rate is lower than the hypothetical accident rate would be...if all those people could somehow fit on the roads in cars (they couldn't--there are not enough roads to accommodate NY City commuters in private cars or taxis.)
Looking at 2025 data:
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/safer-subways-governor-hochul-announces-subway-crime-fell-historic-lows-summer [ny.gov]
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 07, @03:05AM (1 child)
Crime rates in the USA have been reaching all-time lows, and also aren't significantly higher for cities than for rural areas. As in, there are more crimes in cities because there are more people in cities, but there are quite rural areas that have higher crimes per capita than many major cities. For example, my state has plenty of small towns with lousy economies that are basically meth and fentanyl central.
On top of that, if somebody tries to start something on transit, you have (a) all the other law-abiding passengers, (b) staff, and sometimes (c) a dedicated transit police force all there to help deal with it.
Which makes me think that you aren't worried about "crime" or "intentionally created high crime areas" so much as people you've been convinced to assume are criminals, probably based on stereotypes that are about 35 years out of date.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday July 07, @03:58PM
LOL like that's ever happened IRL.
Not sure if you're trying to be sarcastic or serious LOL.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ledow on Monday July 06, @02:35PM
Just like life keeps reinventing crabs the world over, over and over and over again, people keep doing the same for train systems.
When something works, maybe stick with it.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Deep Blue on Monday July 06, @03:50PM
and maybe put all the people in concrete cages, so they don't need to travel anywhere!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Monday July 06, @07:30PM (5 children)
All three of those are problems they're trying to solve though.
1. The routes are inconvenient and limiting (no I don't want a dense urban environment that is proven to cause mental health problems
2. I don't want to share with druggies
3. I don't want to follow a rigid and inconvenient schedule
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday July 06, @07:50PM (2 children)
Those are all greatly exaggerated, at least if you're in a city where they care about such things. Most of the buses that I'm likely to want to take run at least 4x an hour through most of the day. And, I hardly ever see anybody on drugs on the buses. It can be somewhat inconvenient, but generally, you'd work out where you're going to live and work ahead of time, to the extent you can and bikes can significantly improve the mobility. .
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday July 07, @01:04PM (1 child)
I think London Transport did a study where they found that the tipping point for reading timetables was 5 equally-spaced buses/trains an hour - at that point people just turned up and waited for the next arrival, without bothering to adjust their schedules to a timetable.
I'm too lazy/busy on other things to look it up right now.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Tuesday July 07, @03:21PM
That sounds about right. The bus I take the most often comes 4 times an hour through much of the day and at 4 times an hour it's already rather hard to work out if it's running fast or behind if it isn't there when I expect it to be. At 5 times an hour, I probably wouldn't bother worrying about it at all.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday July 06, @10:12PM (1 child)
1. A lot of these systems go out into the suburbs with stations that are more like park-and-rides.
2. Your belief that there are tons of druggies in public transit is more stereotype than reality.
3. Regarding the "scheduling" point: If the subway trains are frequent enough you don't think about scheduling. You just show up and wait for the next one going the right direction, which will arrive in a few minutes. Everyone who has lived in a city with a real functional subway system can tell you that's basically the norm.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday July 07, @04:11PM
Says who, and why?
https://deohs.washington.edu/sites/default/files/2023-09/UW%20exposure%20assessment%20final%20report%20Sept%202023_authors.pdf [washington.edu]
It's to the point in some big cities, that riding the bus might be a viable legal defense to a failed corporate or probation drug test.
I realize the scientists in the study were in a 3rd world failed state area, not a civilized area, so there are some apples to oranges comparison problems, but still, whew...
As a public policy issue I think it's a legit issue that it's unfair to fire or prosecute a bus driver for failing a drug test if their workplace is documented as contaminated with those very drugs.
Firing a bus driver for testing positive for fent is like punishing an employee of a lead smelter for their "decision" to have a high lead level in their blood.
"Yeah just don't touch anything or breath while you're on the bus, bro, because doing that is a moral failing"
(Score: 3, Touché) by SomeGuy on Monday July 06, @06:05PM (1 child)
So where the obligatory from the "I brake for no one" department?
*Thunk* "Sorry, what a mess!" 200 point extra splatter bonus!
What could possibly go wrong.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07, @06:39AM
I've seen some videos of self-driving cars and their reflexes seem even worse than mine. They take longer to brake.
Their only advantage is in theory they are paying attention all the time. Whether that's true in practice, I dunno.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTT4M7tDupg [youtube.com]
They seem to be getting better though for some scenarios:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAuna_qzf6k [youtube.com]
Might still not really be better than human drivers if you exclude the worst 20%?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JBNddcPDv2Y [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UKlh2LQCbTU [youtube.com]
The worst 20% human drivers may have MULTIPLE accidents per year. While the other safer drivers might only have accidents when the bottom 20% ram them or something, otherwise they might have decades without accidents...
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Monday July 06, @08:36PM (1 child)
Why does the title of TFS single out a specific brand when the law applies to all autonomous vehicles sold in the United States?
Of course, we all know the answer to that. The editors here, who no doubt suffer from fourth-stage MDS, have time and time again let their obvious personal biases dictate their ongoing editorial crusade against the world's richest African American. The astonishing thing is that they don't seem to be the least bit embarrassed about it, as they continue unabashed.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06, @09:02PM
The editors didn't write the title, and if you'd bothered to click through to the original article, you'd have noticed that. And the story was processed by one of the bots, so the bot isn't going to change the title, either. But you didn't bother to check on any of this. That's because your goal isn't to discuss technology in good faith but to astroturf this site with bad faith right-wing bullshit wherever you can.
It's not the job of the editors to rewrite story titles. If you don't like what the bots process or what other users submit, get off your lazy crybaby ass and submit a few stories that you think are better. I look at the submissions queue regularly, and I don't see any stories from you. In fact, the last story you've had run on this site was from over three years ago, and it's the only one. Incidentally, that story had a poorly-written and misleading title about the value of "natural immunity" acquired from COVID infections versus being immunized with COVID vaccines. Funny how that works.
If you don't like the title, stop whinging and submit better stories instead of hurling false allegations of bias. Grow up.
(Score: 2) by Bentonite on Tuesday July 07, @03:05AM (1 child)
No brake pedal, no steering wheel - the ride isn't stopping until you're at the destination.
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Tuesday July 07, @06:54AM
I'd like several brake pedals, one in front of every passenger seat just to feel safe.
Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jb on Tuesday July 07, @08:56AM (1 child)
More countries should adopt this law, as it gives evolution a nudge in the right direction.
Anyone stupid enough to be willing to travel in a vehicle without a brake pedal absolutely should be allowed the means to remove themselves from the gene pool as expeditiously as possible.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Tuesday July 14, @07:36PM
Of course the problem with that is they may take out others who do sensibly have brake pedals.
Natural selection is a blunt instrument.