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The US Could Ease Certain Safety Standards For Self-Driving Vehicles

The Trump administration is trying to help get driverless cars on the road faster.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may revise its safety standards for automated vehicles. It's part of an effort by the Trump administration to get self-driving cars on the road more quickly.

Right now, every car has to have certain safety features like a steering wheel, brake pedals and mirrors. But when those rules were written, officials assumed the car would be driven by a person.

On Thursday, the safety administration said it "intends to reconsider the necessity and appropriateness of its current safety standards."

The Trump administration says it wants to make it easier for self-driving vehicles to get exempted from those rules, so long as car-makers prove they can reach "an equivalent level of safety" as a traditional vehicle.

If the rules are revised, that could help companies like General Motors, which filed a petition in January asking to leave steering wheels and brake pedals out of its self-driving cars.