Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LABOR NEWS—Teamsters urge Texas lawmakers to pass bill requiring human operators in autonomous vehicles, (May 14, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Aurora Innovation, Inc.
By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.
A tech company operating in Texas announced plans to remove safety drivers from its trucks this month.
Earlier this month, Aurora Innovation Inc., a self-driving technology firm, announced that it was beginning to pull human backup drivers from certain truck routes in Texas. As of the first of the month, the firm explained that its trucks had already accomplished 1200 miles of driving without drivers on board.
Physically present human operators. Now Teamsters are urging Texas lawmakers to pass a bill—HB 4402—that would require a human operator to be physically present in a commercial motor vehicle if the automated driving system is engaged.
“Requiring a human operator in a driverless truck isn’t unreasonable—it’s common sense,” said Brent Taylor, President of Teamsters Joint Council 80 in Dallas and Southern Region International Vice President. “There are hundreds of thousands of Texans who turn a key for a living. They have mortgages, medical bills, and families to support. We can’t let out-of-state billionaires steal their jobs with reckless automation. We must protect their livelihoods by passing this critical bill into law.”
Liability for damages. The union is also pushing back against a senate bill (Senate Bill 39) that would make it more difficult for AV companies to be held liable for civil damages where they are at fault for an accident.
“The driverless trucks on the road right now cannot drive in most inclement weather and will never match having a human behind the wheel,” said Robert Mele, President of Teamsters Joint Council 58 in Houston. “As if this wasn’t bad enough, Big Tech now wants to avoid accountability when their products malfunction and inevitably destroy people’s lives. The need for HB 4402 has never been more urgent. We encourage state legislators to act as quickly as possible.”
News: LaborNews StateLegislation AINews Safety Labor