Comment from Preston Hall

The idea that not requiring physical brake petals in autonomous vehicles is frankly, short sighted. While it may be technically the case that under normal operations, autonomous vehicles have automatic systems to ensure the safety of the passengers in the case the vehicle needs to slow down. However there are many edge cases that this policy ignores where autonomous systems may not be able to automatically slow the vehicle within the current safe stopping distance set by regulation. One such example is when the system malfunctions, causing it to misjudge whether danger is imminent where a human driver would be able to correct. This is especially the case in the current day when the vast majority of motor vehicles on public roads are human-driven. The proposed policy may be feasible in a future where autonomous vehicles can communicate with each other over a network, but that does yet exist. Therefore, as a member of the public, I stongely implore regulators to reconsider this rule change, and keep the requirement that autonomous vehicles must have physical brake pedals.