Amazon’s driverless subsidiary Zoox claims that it doesn’t need an exemption from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to deploy vehicles without traditional controls like steering wheels (like GM’s Cruise) because it is using “self-certification” to ensure its vehicles are safe. That sounded kind of weird, so I reached out to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to see what they say. Here’s what they told me.
The agency is evaluating the basis for these self-certification claims and, as part of this effort, continues to review information provided by Zoox in response to questions previously posed by the agency.
If vehicles do not comply with all applicable FMVSS, they must generally receive an exemption from NHTSA to operate on public roads.
[Insert monocle emoji.]
