New Mexico lawmakers have been told their state has almost no rules governing driverless trucks: a company that wants to test an autonomous truck on New Mexico roads today only has to notify the state five days in advance, with no permit, no state authorisation and no other barriers, according to testimony at a legislative hearing on Friday, October 23.
Source: CDLLife, reporting Source New Mexico
The warning came at a meeting of the interim Transportation Infrastructure Revenue Subcommittee, where public safety advocates urged lawmakers to implement stricter requirements for companies planning to test autonomous trucks on state roads. News Radio KKOB in Albuquerque reported that speakers pointed to reported crashes involving automated driving systems and argued that stronger oversight is needed before wider deployment.
Source: News Radio KKOB, Albuquerque
A trucker's warning from the driver's seat
Among those who addressed the committee was Daniel Cook, a business agent with Teamsters Local 492 in Albuquerque. Cook told lawmakers he spent years driving commercial vehicles in Alaska fitted with autonomous technology intended to keep the driver safe — and he described its faults from direct experience. The trucks, he said, would read a speed limit sign and slam on the brakes, or make other mistakes such as incorrectly identifying a median as a stationary object and stopping the truck unsafely.
Source: CDLLife, reporting Source New Mexico
"These systems do affect the way we drive currently and they are not ready to go at this point," Cook told the committee.
What New Mexico law requires today — and what other states require
As the law stands, New Mexico only requires companies to notify the state five days in advance if they wish to test autonomous trucks. The vehicle must comply with all other state traffic laws, but no other requirements or barriers exist. Six states have gone further and implemented self-driving vehicle regulations that require companies to obtain permits and gain state authorisation before taking self-driving vehicles out on public roads: Hawaii, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Arkansas.
Lawmakers react: 'I didn't realize our laws are so lacking'
"I didn't realize our laws are so lacking," said Representative Joy Garratt in response to the presentation. Representative Rod Montoya was equally blunt about the risk of the state becoming a testing ground without rules: "There is a need over time for this, but the idea of us being the guinea pigs is not something I'm looking forward to. There is a real risk here. We need to put some guardrails."
Source: CDLLife, reporting Source New Mexico
KKOB reported that lawmakers from both parties indicated they may consider additional safety requirements moving forward — a sign that the notice-only system now has bipartisan critics in Santa Fe.
Source: News Radio KKOB, Albuquerque
Why truckers far beyond New Mexico are watching
New Mexico sits on two major freight corridors, Interstate 40 running east-west and Interstate 25 running north-south, and its neighbours Texas and Arizona — both permit states — are already centres of autonomous truck testing. If driverless testing expands into New Mexico under a notice-only rule, the trucks would share those corridors with human drivers, including the many Punjabi diaspora truckers who run I-40 across the Southwest. Oversight of autonomous trucking in the United States is still largely state by state, which is why a single committee hearing in Santa Fe matters to drivers in California, Texas and beyond: the rules written — or not written — in one corridor state follow the freight.
In Texas, Arizona, Nevada, California, Hawaii and Arkansas, a company needs a permit and state authorisation before testing a self-driving vehicle on public roads. In New Mexico today, it needs to give the state five days' notice.
What happens next
No new rule was adopted at the October 23 hearing — interim committees study issues between legislative sessions and feed proposals into the next session. With lawmakers from both parties saying they may consider additional safety requirements, the advocates' push now moves to bill drafting in Santa Fe. Awaaz Punjab will follow whether New Mexico joins the permit states or keeps its notice-only system as autonomous testing grows on the I-40 corridor.
What is solid
- New Mexico currently requires only five days' advance notice before a company tests an autonomous truck on state roads, with no permit or state authorisation, according to testimony reported by Source New Mexico.
- Six states — Hawaii, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Arkansas — require permits and state authorisation before self-driving vehicles go on public roads.
- At the October 23 interim committee hearing, Teamsters Local 492 business agent Daniel Cook described faults he experienced with autonomous technology in commercial vehicles in Alaska, and Representatives Joy Garratt and Rod Montoya both said the state's rules need strengthening.
What is only claimed
- Whether today's autonomous truck systems are ready for public roads — safety advocates told lawmakers they are not; no company position was recorded in the hearing reports, and the technology's readiness remains disputed.