GM ride-hailing fleet would ditch steering wheel, pedals in 2019

DETROIT -- General Motors plans to launch public ride-hailing services with self-driving vehicles that don’t have manual controls such as steering wheels and pedals, starting in 2019.In a petition submitted to NHTSA on Thursday, GM detailed the safety features of the "Cruise AV" vehicle and asked federal officials to allow the vehicles to operate on U.S. roadways without meeting 16 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards that cover vehicles with human drivers but aren’t necessarily applicable for autonomous vehicles.NHTSA said Friday in a statement that it will "review this petition and give it careful consideration."If granted, the waiver would allow GM to launch as many as 2,500 self-driving vehicles a year into a form of taxi service and help pave the way for fully autonomous vehicles to move from niche testing fleets into broader commercial applications."We're seeking to maintain the same, equal safety but to achieve the safety objectives of some standards in a different way," said Paul Hemmersbaugh, a former chief counsel for NHTSA who now serves as chief counsel for GM's mobility efforts. Under the standards currently in place, Hemmersbaugh said, "we can't achieve them without a human driver or without a steering wheel." One example, according to Hemmersbaugh, is a standard requiring vehicles to have airbags in steering wheels, which wouldn't be possible without a steering wheel. The Cruise AV, he said, has an airbag that mirrors the right front-passenger side that provides equivalent safety.

GM ride-hailing fleet would ditch steering wheel, pedals in 2019

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