The AMERICA DRIVES Act Clears the Road for Driverless Semis: What Happens to the Trucker in the Cab?

The AMERICA DRIVES Act—officially the Autonomous Mobility Ensuring Regulation, Innovation, Commerce, and Advancement Driving Reliability in Vehicle Efficiency and Safety Act—is all about putting self-driving big rigs on the road. Specifically, this bill federally mandates that commercial motor vehicles equipped with Level 4 or Level 5 Automated Driving Systems (ADS) can operate across state lines without a human driver, or even a remote operator, sitting behind the wheel (SEC. 2).

This is a massive shift. Essentially, the federal government is stepping in to preempt (override) any state laws that currently require a human occupant in these highly automated trucks. If you’re a state legislator trying to mandate a safety driver on your highways, this bill says, “Nope, that’s a federal decision now.” It focuses only on true autonomy—Level 4 (drives itself under specific conditions) or Level 5 (drives itself everywhere)—not just fancy cruise control.

The Future of the Open Road: No Driver Required

The core impact here is efficiency for the logistics industry. Trucking companies currently face strict federal limits on how long a human driver can operate, known as Hours of Service rules. Remove the human, and those limits disappear, at least in theory. This bill sets a deadline of September 30, 2027, for the Secretary of Transportation to look at every existing federal trucking regulation (think driver drug testing, physical fitness requirements, and licensing rules) and figure out how to update them for a truck with no human driver (SEC. 3).

It’s a huge regulatory cleanup job, forcing the government to rewrite rules that were designed for people, not processors. For example, how do you enforce a physical fitness rule on a machine? The bill also requires the government to formally define new roles: a “remote driver” who can operate the vehicle from afar, and “remote assistance,” which is basically an off-site human giving the confused truck a little event-driven advice to keep it moving (SEC. 3).

Who Pays the Price for Progress?

While the bill promises regulatory fairness for companies adopting these automated trucks, the most immediate and long-term impact falls squarely on the professional truck driver. This legislation is a clear signal that the federal government is prioritizing the deployment of driverless technology, which could eventually displace millions of long-haul drivers. If you’re a 35-year-old trucker supporting your family, this bill sets a hard deadline for when your job, as you know it, might be fundamentally changed or eliminated by technology.

Furthermore, the federal preemption of state laws means that local concerns about safety or infrastructure specific to certain regions are sidelined. While federal rules must be updated to ensure safety, the pace and nature of that update—which the Secretary has until 2027 to complete—will determine whether the safety net is strong enough for truly driverless operations. The bill explicitly forbids creating new rules that “unfairly burden” ADS companies, which puts regulatory caution on the defensive against innovation.

In a small, technical win for current human-driven trucks, the bill also codifies that cab-mounted warning beacons are officially permitted safety devices under specific federal regulations (SEC. 4). More importantly for the ADS trucks, the law adjusts how truck width is measured, excluding the space taken up by the automated driving technology itself. This means trucks can accommodate the necessary sensors and hardware without violating existing width limits (SEC. 3).