The Trump administration’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has proposed ditching the brake pedal requirement for vehicles that are “designed to be driven exclusively by automated driving systems.” Because who needs a pedal when the robot can just figure it out?

The proposal, if adopted, would remove a major regulatory barrier for companies like Tesla and Zoox, which are building fully autonomous vehicles without steering wheels or pedals. The public now has 30 days to comment, presumably while frantically imagining a future where you can’t even stomp on the brakes in a panic.

This is the latest in a series of proposed changes from the Trump DOT. Late last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also proposed scrapping requirements for windshield wipers and tire placards. Because apparently, if the car is driving itself, it doesn’t need to see or tell you the tire pressure.

President Biden was also working toward this goal. During his administration, NHTSA finalized a rule allowing autonomous vehicles without steering wheels. So this is a bipartisan effort to let robots take the wheel - or rather, not have a wheel at all.

Currently, companies developing autonomous vehicles that lack FMVSS-required parts must request an exemption from the feds, and even if granted, limits apply on how many such vehicles can roam the streets. Removing requirements for brake pedals will theoretically get autonomous vehicles on the road faster, according to NHTSA.

“We are at the cusp of the greatest technological revolution in vehicle technology since the innovation of the Model T,” NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a statement. “If we want America to lead the way, we have to reimagine our regulatory framework. That’s why under Secretary Sean Duffy’s AV Framework, 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.”

Tesla has spent years developing a two-seater Cybercab intended to operate without a steering wheel or pedals. The company never applied for an exemption - CEO Elon Musk repeatedly said they’d deploy nationwide once regulatory approval was granted. Meanwhile, Tesla has been running a small robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, starting with safety drivers and then removing them for “unsupervised” operation. The company admitted to NHTSA it uses teleoperators to monitor and, in rare cases, remotely move vehicles at low speeds after crashes or to avoid obstacles. So, you know, totally unsupervised.

Zoox, owned by Amazon, already got an exemption last year to demonstrate its purpose-built robotaxi and is waiting for another to operate commercially. Companies like Waymo, which use retrofitted vehicles with manual controls, can deploy as many robotaxis as they want. So the new rules mainly help those building cars without any human backup - brave, or just brake-less?