General Motors says it is ready to mass-produce a self-driving car that has no steering wheel, pedals or any other manual controls. The car company said Friday that it has filed a petition with the Department of Transportation for the fourth-generation Cruise AV to hit the streets in 2019. GM maintains that the car "will comply with federal safety laws;" the petition is asking for a waiver for laws that it cannot meet "because they are human-driver-based-requirements."For example: "A car without a steering wheel can't have a steering wheel airbag," as GM President Dan Ammann told The Verge.With no steering wheel or pedals, the car's dashboard appears jarringly symmetrical in model photos released by the company. The vehicle maintains the conventional design of two rows of forward-facing seats. Some critics, such as Jalopnik's Jason Torchinsky, have suggested GM should have been more experimental: "There's just no reason to keep these rigid interior design rules when you're not required (or able) to drive! ... There should at least be an option to swivel the front seats around, or allow the seats to all face inwardly." It'll be possible for humans to stop the car – GM says customers having an emergency "may end the ride by making a stop request, and the vehicle will pull to the side of the road at the next available safe place."The cars are undergoing testing on the roads of San Francisco and the Phoenix suburbs. GM says San Francisco provides rigorous challenges to the vehicles – for example, in the Northern California city it faces more than 7 times more emergency vehicles than in Phoenix.As NPR's Sonari Glinton reported this week, along with Tesla, many other car companies are rolling out new electric and driverless models:
GM Says Car With No Steering Wheel Or Pedals Ready For Streets In 2019
