Driverless trucks may violate the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR), as it stated clearly in the regulations, truck drivers are required to take immediate safety measures after a breakdown or crash to protect other motorists. This includes activating hazard lights, placing reflective warning triangles, and deploying flares at regulated distances to alert oncoming traffic — often on highways with limited visibility, dangerous curves, or high-speed zones. These simple but critical actions save lives by giving approaching drivers advanced warning of a stopped vehicle ahead. With no human, the absence of any emergency warnings may cause deadly secondary accidents, rear-end collisions with a stranded truck and other accidents that flares, signaling or reflectors may have prevented.

An autonomous truck cannot exit the cab to set up these safety devices. If a self-driving truck suffers a mechanical failure, tire blowout, or collision and becomes disabled on the side of the road — particularly at night, in fog, or on rural stretches of highway — it simply sits there, relying only on static hazard lights. Without a human present to place warning triangles or flares further down the road, an already dangerous situation can quickly become lethal as unsuspecting drivers approach at highway speeds with no advanced notice of the obstruction ahead.

But the danger goes far beyond failing to place warning devices. In many roadside emergencies, human truck drivers have historically served as the first line of defense to protect others. A professional driver might:

• Assist an injured motorist trapped in a disabled vehicle.
• Pull accident victims to safety after a rollover or fiery crash.
• Render basic first aid while waiting for emergency responders.
• Alert authorities when spotting erratic drivers or vehicles stalled dangerously in the roadway.
• Protect young children wandering near roadways after accidents.
• Help rescue victims of an abductions, kidnappings or human trafficking.

Autonomous trucks are completely incapable of taking any of these life-saving actions. They cannot assess unfolding emergencies, physically assist the injured, or make judgment calls when every second counts. If a small child is stranded on the shoulder after a crash, an experienced truck driver might stop, activate emergency flashers, and block traffic to protect that child until help arrives. A driverless truck would simply detect an “object” ahead and either continue driving or attempt to reroute, without any awareness of the human danger involved.

Worse yet, consider situations where human intervention has stopped crimes in progress — such as child abductions, assaults, or violent domestic incidents occurring on or near highways. Truck drivers have historically played a critical role in calling for help, physically intervening, or providing eyewitness information to law enforcement. An autonomous truck, with no human onboard, offers no such protection to vulnerable victims in distress.

When lawmakers crafted FMCSA safety regulations, they assumed — correctly — that humans bring not only technical compliance, but also judgment, compassion, and quick thinking in emergency situations. Autonomous vehicles strip away that layer of human responsibility entirely. By eliminating the driver, these machines remove a vital safety net that protects motorists, pedestrians, and communities in ways no software system can replicate.

In short, every mile driven by a fully autonomous truck increases not just technical risk but also removes one more set of trained eyes — and willing hands — from American highways. In a crisis, that absence could be the difference between life and death.