Who Gets the Ticket When There’s No Driver?

You see the lights in your mirror. Your stomach drops. You weren’t speeding — at least you don’t think you were. You signal, ease onto the shoulder, put the vehicle in park. Engine running. Hands on the wheel where they can see them. You know what comes next.

The officer walks up. A flashlight sweeps the cab. The script hasn’t changed in decades: “License and registration. You know why I pulled you over? Where you headed?”

Now imagine that no one is there to hand over the license. No one to answer the question. No one is in the seat at all.

This isn’t hypothetical. Autonomous trucks are hauling revenue freight on Texas highways right now. Aurora launched commercial driverless operations on the Dallas-Houston corridor in May 2025. By year’s end, they’d logged more than 100,000 miles with no safety driver behind the wheel. Kodiak, Torc, and others are right behind them.

This raises a question that every fleet manager, safety director, and trucking executive has argued about at some point: When an 80,000-lb. truck runs a red light and there’s nobody to hand the citation to, who gets the ticket?

This Isn’t a Camry Doing 72 in a 65

Commercial vehicle enforcement is its own world. When a trooper pulls over a Class 8, they’re not asking if you were doing 73 in a 70. They’re checking weigh station compliance. Hours-of-service logs. Equipment violations — lights, brakes, tires, load securement. Hazmat placarding. Operating authority. Insurance.

Every one of those interactions assumes a person. Hand over the logbook. Explain what’s in the trailer. Pop the hood. Step out of the vehicle.

For a century, traffic enforcement has been built around a fundamental assumption: there’s a human behind the wheel who can be questioned, cited, and held accountable. Remove that human, and you don’t just have a technology problem — you have an accountability architecture problem.

The San Bruno Moment

In September 2025, San Bruno, California police officers were running a DUI checkpoint when they watched a Waymo robotaxi make an illegal U-turn at a posted no-U-turn sign. They pulled it over. Empty driver’s seat. No one to cite.

Under California law at the time, moving violations could only be written against a human driver. The officers contacted Waymo, reported the violation, and that was it. No ticket. No fine. No points on anyone’s license.

For robotaxis, this is awkward. For 80,000-lb. trucks hauling freight across state lines? It’s a regulatory gap you could drive a semi through.

What Cops Normally Ask — And How It Changes

Think about the standard commercial vehicle stop. The chart below shows how the conversation typically goes with a human driver versus what happens with an autonomous truck.

California’s Answer: AB 1777

California, predictably, got there first. Assembly Bill 1777, effective July 1, 2026, creates a new enforcement mechanism — the “notice of autonomous vehicle noncompliance.” It’s effectively a traffic ticket — but it goes to the manufacturer or operator, not a nonexistent driver.

Here’s what the law requires.

• Two-way communication: Every AV operating without a human driver must have a device that lets law enforcement and emergency responders talk directly to a remote human operator. No more pulling over a vehicle and having no one to communicate with.
• Emergency responder hotline: Manufacturers must maintain a dedicated line for police, fire, and EMS — available 24/7.
• Emergency geofencing: If an emergency response official issues a geofencing message, the manufacturer must direct its fleet to leave or avoid the area within two minutes. Two minutes. That’s a hard requirement.
• Software accountability: If a violation stems from a technical or software defect, the manufacturer has 60 days after conviction to fix it. Not “we’ll look into it.” 60 days.

California also passed SB 480, which authorizes Autonomous Driving System (ADS) marker lamps — lights that signal to everyone on the road that the vehicle is being driven by its automated system, not a human. Starting January 2026, cops won’t have to guess whether they’re dealing with an autonomous vehicle.

The 7 Things the Truck Must Answer

Forget what cops will ask. Here’s what the autonomous truck — and the systems behind it — must be able to provide.

1. “I am autonomous.” Clear visual identification. ADS marker lamps. Signage. USDOT number prominently displayed. Aurora’s trucks, for example, have sensors mounted on the roof, branding on the doors, and their legal business name and DOT number on each side. A law enforcement officer should know what they’re dealing with before they even approach the vehicle.
2. “I’m pulling over safely.” The truck must recognize emergency lights, find an appropriate place to stop, and pull over without requiring any special equipment or training from the officer. Aurora trained its system on light patterns from the Texas Department of Public Safety and Travis County Sheriff’s Office. The truck sees the lights, finds a shoulder, and stops.
3. “I won’t move.” Officers need to know the vehicle is immobilized and won’t suddenly restart. Aurora uses a flashing amber light on the sensor pod.  A quick flash means “safe to approach, vehicle will not move.” No flash means caution — it could move. This is the autonomous equivalent of “put it in park.”
4. “Here’s who to call — and here’s my paperwork.” A 1-800 number connects to the Command Center, staffed 24/7. The operator verifies the officer’s identity through dispatch, then provides access codes. One code opens the document lockbox with registration, insurance, bill of lading, and permits. Another opens the cab if needed. Everything an officer would normally ask for is accessible without entering the vehicle.
5. “I can get out of your way — fast.” Under California’s AB 1777, if emergency responders issue a geofencing message, the manufacturer must direct the truck to leave or avoid the area within two minutes. Not “when convenient.” Two minutes. This is the autonomous equivalent of “move your vehicle” — except the command goes to a fleet operations center that can mobilize every truck in the zone simultaneously.
6. “Here’s my data.” This is where it gets complicated. An autonomous truck logs everything: speed, position, sensor readings, system decisions, every second of every trip. What’s the equivalent of an ELD for a vehicle that doesn’t have hours-of-service requirements? Who stores this data? For how long? Who can access it — the officer at roadside, the fleet, the manufacturer, a plaintiff’s attorney in discovery? This is the gap no one has fully answered yet.
7. “You can release me.” Clear protocol to get the truck back on the road — or towed if necessary. The officer communicates with the Command Center, confirms the stop is complete, and the truck waits for the officer to return to their vehicle before preparing to re-enter traffic. No ambiguity about when the interaction is over.

The Gaps That Keep Fleet Managers Up at Night

California has a framework. Texas — where most autonomous trucking is actually happening — doesn’t have an equivalent to AB 1777. Neither does Arizona or New Mexico — the other states in Aurora’s current operating domain. What happens when a truck crosses state lines? Whose rules apply?

Federal regulations haven’t caught up either. Aurora and Waymo applied for an exemption from the rule requiring drivers to exit and place reflective triangles on the roadway when stopped on a highway shoulder. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration denied it in late 2024. Aurora sued, arguing the rule — written in 1972 — was never designed for vehicles without drivers and that their cab-mounted warning beacons are actually safer than asking someone to walk along the shoulder of an interstate. That case is still pending.

Then there’s the data question. Your autonomous truck logs everything. In a lawsuit, that’s discoverable. How long must you retain it? What’s your liability exposure if you can’t produce it — or if you can, and it shows something unflattering? Insurance underwriters still are figuring out how to price this risk.

And the accountability chain is genuinely murky. If an autonomous truck runs a red light, is that on the technology developer? The fleet operating it? The shipper whose freight is on board? The answer probably depends on which state you’re in, what the contract says, and whether this ends up in front of a jury.

The Accountability Shift

I spent 25 years in military logistics. One thing you learn fast — when something goes wrong, someone is responsible. Not “the system.” Not “the process.” A person, with a name, who answers for what happened.

For a hundred years, traffic enforcement has worked the same way. There’s a human behind the wheel. They get the ticket. They pay the fine. They take the points. The accountability is simple because the answer is sitting right there in the driver’s seat.

That assumption just expired on a Texas highway.

The trucks are already out there — hauling freight through the night, no one in the cab, no one to pull over. And somewhere tonight, an officer is going to light up an 80,000-lb. semi, walk up to the window, and find no one to ask: “You know why I pulled you over?”

The truck will know. The data will know. The question is whether you’ve figured out who answers for it.

Featured image was generated with Google Gemini.