<body><p>STORY: :: Archive</p><p>What if your next driverless taxi had no steering wheel? That may soon become a reality.</p><p>Amazon-owned Zoox has won the first U.S. approval for commercial deployment of a robotaxi built without traditional human controls.</p><p>The approval came from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA...</p><p>allowing the company to begin charging for rides in Las Vegas once it completes state requirements.</p><p>Here's NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison.</p><p>"Since our standards get into performance requirements for specific aspects such as braking performance, they provided information and we received public comment, and we made that determination that their vehicle as equipped, can meet all of those requirements and in fact, exceed those."</p><p>The vehicle looks very different from a conventional car.</p><p>It's an electric, carriage-style robotaxi with two rows of inward-facing seats and a top speed of 75 miles per hour.</p><p>Federal officials say Zoox can deploy up to 2,500 vehicles in each of the next two years.</p><p>The move comes as companies including Alphabet's Waymo and Elon Musk's Tesla race to expand driverless ride-hailing services across the U.S.</p><p>The green light comes with added oversight.</p><p>U.S. regulators say the firm must report issues including crashes and inappropriate stops.</p><p>Authorities also retain the power to revoke the exemption if major safety concerns emerge.</p></body>
