US agency orders Tesla to answer questions on Cybercab certification

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. ‌National Highway Traffic ​Safety Administration ​on Tuesday said Tesla must answer a series of questions by September 30 on whether it properly self-certified its autonomous Cybercab robotaxi as part of the government's investigation.

NHTSA ‌said Tesla must answer whether temporarily installed human driver controls or other equipment was ⁠part of Tesla’s basis for certifying compliance, and other questions.

The auto safety regulator said this month it was examining the ‌process and technical data the EV ‌maker relied on to demonstrate compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards before deploying the robotaxi.

Tesla and other robotaxi companies including Google's Waymo have backed plans by President Donald Trump's administration to change ​regulations so that such vehicles do not need to have steering wheels, brake pedals, rear-view mirrors or other equipment required by human drivers. Critics of robotaxis oppose the changes, saying the rules ⁠should not be waived until the companies prove that autonomous vehicles are safe.

NHTSA asked Tesla to confirm whether the Cybercab robotaxis are ​capable of being driven by a human driver and if there are any controls in the vehicle touchscreen by which occupants can move the vehicle.

It also ​wants Tesla to answer questions including maximum speed, geographical or ‌time-of-day limits and other restrictions on the robotaxis.

On September 3, Tesla began commercial deployment of a small number of the two-seater Cybercabs in Austin, Texas, and said ⁠it planned to gradually expand the service to additional vehicles and locations.

NHTSA said the Cybercab lacks conventional manual controls, including a steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal and mirrors.

In June, the agency proposed to end a government requirement ⁠for manual brake pedals in self-driving vehicles, a move that would make it easier to deploy such vehicles without human ​controls on U.S. roads.

The agency has proposed other changes to federal safety standards to allow autonomous vehicles to avoid needing additional human driver equipment, but existing standards remain in force until those are finalized, NHTSA said.

Tesla did not ‌immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under existing law, fully self-driving vehicles do not need NHTSA approval if they have steering wheels, brake pedals, mirrors and ‌other features of human-controlled vehicles.

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. In July, NHTSA ​approved a petition for Amazon's Zoox unit for limited commercial deployment of its novel steering-wheel-free robotaxis, a first for the autonomous ride industry.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by ‌David Gregorio)

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