Texas Teamsters are calling for emergency legislation to require human operators in self-driving trucks as Aurora’s driverless semis roll out commercially on the I-45 corridor.
Teamsters’ representatives say Texas House Bill 4402 and Senate Bill 2425 are crucial for both public safety and the economic survival of thousands of truck drivers across the state.
“Requiring human operators in driverless cars and trucks is not an unreasonable imposition; it is a basic necessity for economic prosperity and highway safety in our state,” said Brent Taylor, Southern Region vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “There are hundreds of thousands of Texans who turn a key for a living… We have a responsibility to protect their livelihoods from being stolen by out-of-state billionaires.”
The call for regulation follows the official launch of Aurora Innovation’s fully autonomous trucking service on the I-45 corridor between Houston and Dallas.
This marks the first commercial rollout of self-driving Class 8 trucks in the United States, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The trucks operate without a human driver on board, guided instead by an array of sensors and Aurora’s proprietary AI software.
Aurora’s CEO, Chris Urmson, previously described the launch as a landmark moment, saying, “Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads.”
But not everyone is celebrating the milestone. Critics argue that the technology is still unproven in real-world conditions and could open the door to serious safety and labor consequences.
“The driverless trucks on the road right now cannot drive in most inclement weather, they’ve completed most of their miles in a simulator, and they are nowhere close to being ready for prime time,” Robert Mele, president of Teamsters Joint Council 58 in Houston, said to The Dallas Express. “As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, these Big Tech firms now want to avoid accountability when their products malfunction and inevitably destroy people’s lives.”
Mele was referring to a separate bill, Texas Senate Bill 39, that critics say would make it harder to hold AV companies liable for damages in the event of an accident.
The threat is twofold for independent truckers: automation from above and labor dumping from abroad.
“It’s an extinction-level event for American workers in the trades that don’t have protected niches,” said Shannon Everett, founder of American Truckers United. This group advocates for labor protections and reforms in the trucking industry. “The American worker will be the first to be pushed completely out—and that is happening now.”
In an interview with The Dallas Express, Everett blamed what he described as a systemic effort to replace native-born drivers through both automation and immigration-fueled labor arbitrage.
“We call this replacement LABOR DUMPING,” he explained. “Where immigration is being used to take advantage of the labor arbitrage at the expense of American workers. The problem in trucking has grown conveniently with the likes of Amazon.”
Everett warned that autonomous freight was not only a job killer but also a security liability.
“We suspect much like how people have learned to exploit the self-checkout process, they will learn how to exploit the automated trucks in an effort to steal more cargo at an unprecedented rate,” he said. His statement was predicated on recent reporting from The Dallas Express that many grocery retailers are reversing their embrace of self-checkout amid soaring losses.
Aurora insists that its system is safe and thoroughly tested.
The company says each vehicle is equipped with redundant braking, steering, and power systems and is remotely monitored by human operators who can intervene if necessary. According to Aurora, its trucks have already logged more than 1,200 commercial miles along the I-45 corridor without incident.
Still, opponents say technological readiness does not equal public readiness—and that economic consequences must be weighed alongside safety concerns.
“There are niches where American drivers are being pushed, and that too is driving down the wages of the existing census,” Everett said, pointing to specialized haulings like livestock, oversize shipments, and bulk commodities as some of the last domains not yet targeted by automation.
For the Teamsters, the legislative path forward is clear.
“The need for HB 4402 and SB 2425 has never been more urgent, so we encourage state legislators to act as quickly as possible,” said Mele.
The Texas bills would mandate a trained human operator in any autonomous vehicle, including heavy trucks.
If passed, they could set a precedent nationally, especially as other states consider how to regulate the expanding AV industry. Until then, unions and advocates say they’ll continue pressing the case that some technology, however advanced, should not replace the human hands on the wheel.