For years, driverless trucks were mostly a talking point at industry conferences and a subject of speculative news articles. That's no longer the case. Companies like Aurora, Kodiak, and Waymo are now operating loaded tractor-trailers on public highways without anyone behind the wheel, and the laws governing who's responsible when something goes wrong are still being written in real time.
Trucking companies have pushed hard toward automation for a simple reason. Paying a human driver for days or weeks on a long haul is expensive, and the industry has struggled with a persistent driver shortage for years. Automation promises to solve both problems at once. What it doesn't solve, at least not yet, is the legal uncertainty about who is responsible for a truck crash when there's no driver to question.
The Technology Is Already on the Road
As of early 2026, fewer than 200 fully automated trucks are operating commercially in the United States, and almost all of them run in Texas and other Sun Belt corridors where weather and traffic patterns are relatively predictable. That number sounds small, but it's growing fast, and companies operating these fleets have publicly stated plans to expand into new states and routes within the next year or two.
These trucks operate under what's called Level 4 automation, meaning the system handles driving within a defined set of conditions without a human needing to take over. That's different from the driver assistance features found in many passenger cars today. A Level 4 truck can legally and technically move freight from one point to another with nobody in the cab at all.
Where the Law Stands Right Now
At the federal level, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been working since 2018 toward a formal regulatory framework for these vehicles, and 2026 has brought that work closer to the finish line, with a proposed rule addressing inspection, maintenance, and safety standards for automated trucks expected this year. Separately, a bipartisan bill in Congress, known as the SELF DRIVE Act, would go further by authorizing driverless commercial trucks nationwide and overriding individual state restrictions, though the bill has drawn opposition from driver advocacy groups concerned about how little federal verification it would require before a company puts an autonomous truck on the road.
Virginia has its own version of this debate playing out in Richmond. Legislation backed by state Senator Saddam Salim would create a licensing framework through the Virginia DMV for autonomous vehicles and trucks, including a certificate required before a company could operate a driverless commercial vehicle in the state. Lawmakers involved in the process have said realistic deployment in Virginia is still a couple of years away, likely no earlier than 2028, with a state work group continuing to study safety data and liability questions through the rest of 2026.
Who Is Responsible When a Driverless Truck Causes a Crash
This is the question regulators, insurers, and courts still haven't fully answered, and it's the one that matters most to anyone hurt in one of these accidents. Unlike a typical truck accident case, where the driver and the motor carrier are usually the starting point, a crash involving an automated truck could point to responsibility in several different directions, including:
- The motor carrier that owns and operates the truck
- The manufacturer that built the vehicle and its automated driving system
- The software company that designed the sensors, mapping, or decision-making systems
- A remote operator, if one was monitoring the vehicle at the time of the crash
- Another driver on the road, if a passenger vehicle contributed to the crash
Some early safety data has also raised its own questions. A recent review of automated vehicle safety noted that these vehicles have been struck from behind by other drivers at rates several times higher than the national average, often because the automated systems stop abruptly in situations that a human driver might handle differently. That pattern shifts part of the usual accident dynamic, since the fault in these cases may involve how the automated system reacted rather than how it was driving.
What This Means If You're Hurt in a Crash
The basic legal framework for a truck accident claim doesn't disappear just because a computer was driving. A victim still has to show that someone owed a duty of care, that the duty was breached, and that the breach caused real, documented harm. What changes is the kind of evidence involved. Instead of pulling a driver's hours of service logs, an attorney may need sensor data, software logs, mapping records, and maintenance histories from the manufacturer itself. These cases can also raise product liability questions alongside standard negligence claims, since a defect in the automated system's design or programming may have contributed to the crash.
Since 1985, the attorneys affiliated with Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp have represented injured Virginians through every shift in how accidents happen and how claims get investigated, and that experience matters as the trucking industry moves into uncharted territory. A Virginia Beach personal injury lawyer familiar with commercial trucking cases understands how to identify every party that may share responsibility, whether that's a traditional trucking company or a technology firm several steps removed from the crash scene.
The firm's attorneys bring more than 100 years of combined experience to personal injury and trucking cases, and every case is handled on a contingency basis, meaning clients pay nothing upfront and owe no fee unless the case results in a settlement or verdict.
Talk to a Virginia Beach Personal Injury Lawyer About Your Truck Accident Case
If you or someone you love has been injured in any type of truck accident, whether it involved a traditional driver or an automated system, it's worth having your case reviewed by someone who understands how quickly this area of the law is changing.
Contact Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp today at 833-997-1774 for a free consultation with a Virginia Beach personal injury lawyer. We will investigate your case thoroughly, as we did for our client who sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a large truck accident. We helped negotiate an $883,155 insurance settlement.
For your convenience, we have offices in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Norfolk, and Chesapeake. There's never a fee unless we win your case.
