WASHINGTON — The federal government has begun the process of exempting the nation’s first purpose-built robotaxi from certain safety standards so it can deploy commercially on American roads.

Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary Zoox petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in August for such exemptions so it could place up to 2,500 self-driving robotaxis across a handful of U.S. cities.

The process will move ahead on Wednesday with the opening of a public comment portal, officials announced Tuesday at an AV-focused event at the U.S. Department of Transportation Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted that, if approved, the exemptions would enable “the nation's first-ever commercial deployment of a purpose-built, steering-wheel-free robotaxi.”

“This marks a major milestone for providing the American AV industry with a streamlined pathway to scale commercial deployment,” he added. AVs are autonomous vehicles, also known as automated vehicles, that can navigate without a human operator.

NHTSA Administrator John Morrison emphasized the significance of his agency’s announcement: “We don't take this request lightly, which is why we want to hear from the public to inform how we should evaluate this.”

Both Duffy and Morrison delivered remarks at the National AV Safety Forum, which drew more than 400 engineers, safety officials, lobbyists and others. The event also featured a panel with the CEOs of AV companies Zoox; Waymo LLC, which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., and trucking-focused Aurora Innovation Inc.

Other programming at the event was to cover safety metrics for AVs and the role of remote oversight in deployment of the cutting-edge technology.

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