A California bill now working its way through the state legislature would require a trained human operator behind the wheel of self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds.
Known as Assembly Bill 2286, the bill is a new version of Assembly Bill 316, which passed in the California statehouse but was vetoed by the governor in 2023. That “AV human operator bill” has now been re-launched by its original sponsor, Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry.
“I’ve reintroduced this bill because the Legislature’s role is critical in deciding when autonomous trucking is safe and when there is a REAL plan for our trucking workers,” Aguiar-Curry said in a release. “The autonomous trucking industry has cast this bill as a ban on technology when it explicitly states that testing and deployment will happen with a Human Safety Operator. Using their logic, they’re the ones who support a ban. A ban on humans in trucks. A ban on working people’s ability to provide for their families and provide safe roadways for Californians. We will not stand by and let them put profits over people.”
The bill is the latest proposed legislation aimed at controlling the widening use of autonomous vehicles on public roads, alongside California’s Senate Bill 915, that would give municipalities more control over AV cars on local roads. However, a different bill recently loosened restrictions on autonomous trucks. House Bill 1095 in South Dakota recently became law, allowing AVs to operate on the state’s roads without a human operator behind the wheel.
Support for the renewed California proposal came from the Teamsters Union, which called the proposal “common sense” regulation. “All eyes are watching to see if California will take the first step towards passing common sense autonomous vehicle regulation. AB 2286 is not a ban on self-driving technology – it is a bipartisan bill that puts safety first by ensuring a trained human operator behind the wheel of autonomous trucks,” Chris Griswold, Teamsters International Vice President At-Large, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42, said in a release. “If we learned anything last year, it was that autonomous vehicles are not ready for prime time. We cannot keep making the same mistake and allowing Big Tech to run the show at the expense of public safety.”
On the other side of the debate, the bill is opposed by The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA), which argued that California needs both truck drivers and autonomous trucks to cope with its acute supply chain challenges. “The autonomous vehicle industry agrees with Governor Gavin Newsom who concluded just a few months ago that a ban on autonomous trucks in California is ‘unnecessary’,” AVIA CEO Jeff Farrah said in a release. “California’s expert safety regulators and law enforcement officials oversee the safe deployment of AVs and consider appropriate regulatory action. AB 2286 is particularly disappointing considering Governor Newsom has directed the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to lead a process on workforce matters and autonomous heavy-duty vehicles.”
