AUSTIN, Texas —The Teamsters are calling on Texas lawmakers to pass House Bill 4402 (HB 4402), legislation requiring trained human operators in autonomous vehicles (AVs), following its passage out of the Texas House Committee on Transportation.
“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.”
Aurora Trucks Spur Bill
The push for AV regulation comes as the tech company Aurora begins operating fully driverless trucks on Texas roads, despite serious concerns about safety and accountability. The company announced plans to remove safety drivers from its trucks starting this month.
The Teamsters are also pushing back against Senate Bill 39, legislation that would make it harder for AV companies to be held liable for civil damages in the event they are found to be 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.”
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
