The federal government just told autonomous vehicle makers they might not need to install brake pedals anymore.
On June 25, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed updating Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to remove the mandate for physical brake controls in vehicles designed exclusively for automated driving systems. The move is part of a broader, aggressive push by the Trump administration to rewrite decades-old safety regulations that were built around a simple assumption: a human is behind the wheel.
What the new framework actually changes
The specific proposal targets FMVSS No. 135, the federal standard governing braking systems. Under the current rules, every passenger vehicle sold in the US needs a brake pedal. The update wouldn’t eliminate braking performance standards entirely. Vehicles would still need to meet stopping distance requirements. They just wouldn’t need a physical pedal to do it.
This single rule change sits inside a much larger initiative. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has been leading what the administration calls the “Automated Vehicle Framework,” which has introduced at least five updates to FMVSS since its launch. The framework covers everything from simplifying exemptions for non-compliant vehicles to establishing national performance standards specifically for autonomous driving.
