SB2807

Commercial operation without a human driver on Texas highways or streets requires Texas Department of Motor Vehicles authorization and an emergency-interaction plan supplied to the Department of Public Safety. The plan covers an available fleet contact, towing and removal, recognizing automated operation and relevant hazards. Vehicles must meet the law’s traffic, recording-device, federal-safety, registration, insurance and safe-stopping requirements. The vehicle definition uses SAE Level 4 or Level 5 automation; the broader driving-system definition also includes Level 3, referring to the April 2021 SAE standard. This is not a statement that every driver-assistance feature qualifies. Final law, sections 545.451 and 545.455–545.456.

Authorization is based on required statements, acknowledgments and certification; a compliant application must be approved with a unique operating number. Authorization does not expire unless suspended, revoked or canceled. Material document changes must be reported within 30 days. Missing updates or requested documents can trigger immediate suspension, revocation or cancellation, which must promptly be rescinded when the documents arrive. Violating the commercial driverless authorization-and-plan requirements is a Class B misdemeanor, with each day a separate offense and separate business-entity punishment rules. Final law, sections 545.455–545.456.

For an unsafe authorized vehicle whose operation has caused or is likely to cause serious bodily injury, DMV must give supporting evidence and a reasonable period to correct the problem and certify the correction. Continued noncompliance leads to restrictions or loss of authorization. The holder has 10 days to request DMV review; DMV has 10 days to decide. A further hearing request must be made within 10 days of the final determination. If the administrative hearing is not held within 60 days of that determination, authorization is automatically reinstated or restrictions removed. Judicial review is available. This is distinct from the immediate missing-document procedure. Final law, section 545.459.

When engaged, the automated system is the operator; traffic citations go to the vehicle owner or authorization holder as applicable. No licensed human driver is required for an automated motor vehicle with its system engaged. The law retains the ban on local regulation of automated operation, bars discriminatory state-agency regulation and allows the Public Safety Commission to exempt specific traffic laws by rule only if no public-safety risk would result. Commercial-vehicle laws still apply except provisions inherently directed at a human driver. Separate motor-carrier registration provisions exclude violations of the new commercial-authorization/plan requirement from their listed multiple-violation grounds; other grounds remain. Final law, sections 545.452–545.454, 545.457–545.458 and act sections 8–11.

Compensated rides arranged through a digital network in automated vehicles fall within transportation-network-company regulation, with exceptions for inherently human-driver provisions. The act applies the existing ride-service insurance coverage framework, removes the four-door requirement for automated ride vehicles, and exempts companies using automated vehicles from section 2402.113’s accessibility pilot and reporting program. That exemption is not a blanket repeal of accessibility protections. Final law, act sections 3–7; 2017 law establishing the pilot and separate accessibility provisions.

The original bill concerned only worker classification. It prevents deployment, implementation or use of qualifying motor-carrier safety improvements—including those required by contract—from being considered in state-law decisions about employee, joint-employee or independent-contractor status. It does not automatically make every driver a contractor or change federal classification law. Senator Johnson’s adopted amendment tied covered procedures, training, policies and practices to qualifying safety devices, equipment, software or technology. Representative Capriglione’s adopted House amendment added the automated-vehicle provisions and conditional effective-date language. Both changes survive in the final act; there was no conference report. Introduced bill; Senate amendment; House amendment; Amendment index; Text versions; Final law.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Commercial operators gain a defined authorization route and opportunities to correct safety problems, but face paperwork, emergency planning and criminal exposure for noncompliance. Passengers and road users may benefit from insurance, emergency-response and safe-stopping requirements; the act does not prove that automated vehicles are safer. The accessibility-pilot exemption removes that particular testing and reporting obligation. Motor carriers can require qualifying safety measures without that fact counting toward state-law employee status; drivers lose that item of classification evidence, not all possible grounds for employee status. Final law.

The final-stage fiscal note estimates DMV-fund costs of $216,622 in fiscal 2026 and $75,676 in each of fiscal 2027–2030, while estimating zero impact on general-revenue-related funds. It includes $195,000 in one-time technology work and assumed hearing costs. The assumed December 1, 2025 implementation date is a budget assumption, not proof of the legal compliance date. The note expects no significant local enforcement or state correctional impact; the act itself appropriates no money. Earlier notes addressing the narrower worker-classification bill anticipated no significant fiscal effect and do not describe the cost of the expanded final law. This briefing reviews the enacted framework, not current agency rules, issued authorizations, actual spending or a particular vehicle’s compliance. May 29 final-stage fiscal note; April 22 fiscal note; May 10 fiscal note.