R Street Testimony in Opposition to VA HB 1124, autonomous vehicle human operator requirement
Testimony from:
Robert Melvin, Northeast Region Director, R Street Institute
In OPPOSITION to House Bill 1124, “Autonomous vehicles; operation, requirements, civil penalties, reports.”
February 5, 2026
House Transportation Committee, Innovations Subcommittee
Chairwoman Glass and members of the committee,
My name is Robert Melvin, and I am the Northeast Region Director at the R Street Institute (RSI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan public-policy organization. Our mission is to engage in research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government, in a variety of policy areas, including those related to technology and innovation. It is for this reason that House Bill 1124 is of particular interest to us.
HB 1124 may be well-intentioned, but it is fundamentally flawed. This legislation would stipulate that fully autonomous vehicles (AVs), such as autonomous taxi services operating in multiple jurisdictions, would be required to have a human operator physically present in the vehicle at all times.[1] By imposing this requirement in every AV, this proposal will suppress the rollout and deployment of safer transportation options in Virginia—thereby impeding efforts to advance road safety.
Motor vehicle deaths and accidents remain at alarmingly high levels in the United States. According to the CDC and NHTSA, the U.S. leads high-income countries in motor vehicle deaths—11.1 per 100,000 people, double the average.[2]Most of these deaths are driven by human error. NHTSA reports more than 40,000 deaths in 2023, and totals have remained elevated compared to the previous decade.[3] This problem has many contributors, but some of the biggest factors involve human drivers being distracted, impaired, or aggressive.[4] In spite of government efforts to reduce alcohol-related driving fatalities, they continue to rise in the Commonwealth.[5]
Although well-intentioned, the driver-in requirement in the legislation risks undermining future roadway safety improvements. AVs hold the potential to drastically reduce human error in personal transportation. This approach applies an excessively stringent safety standard to AVs—one that is inconsistent with real-world safety data.[6] It is akin to insisting no driver should ever be licensed, regardless of demonstrated competence.
A recent Swiss Re study supports this assessment. In it, Swiss Re analyzed 25.3 million miles driven by AVs and found a dramatic reduction in liability claims—88 percent fewer for property damage and 92 percent fewer for bodily injury—compared to human drivers.[7] In the rare cases AVs are involved in crashes, human drivers are most often at fault, reinforcing the safety advantage of autonomous technology.[8]
AVs experienced 62 percent fewer police-reported crashes, 78 percent fewer injury-related incidents, and 81 percent fewer airbag deployments than vehicles operated by human drivers.[9] Since motor vehicle crashes account for roughly $23 billion in U.S. medical costs annually, a 90 percent reduction in collisions could yield annual savings exceeding $20 billion.[10]
Despite concerns about AV safety, it is important to recognize that this technology is no longer experimental. Autonomous vehicles have been extensively tested and are already operating on public roads, with 30 states and the District of Columbia authorizing their use.[11] Most other states that have not authorized AVs, including Virginia, have not enacted broad restrictions to date.[12] HB 1124 would risk leaving Virginia behind as other states continue to embrace a proven and rapidly evolving technology.
Heavy-handed state regulations on the autonomous vehicle market—like those proposed in HB 1124—could undermine broader policy goals and weaken overall road safety. Instead of enforcing inflexible requirements, Virginia should seek to establish itself as a forward-looking leader in AV innovation. The state would benefit from following legislative models used in other states, which provide more agile legal frameworks for testing and deploying AVs—balancing safety with technological advancement. For these reasons, we respectfully urge opposition to HB 1124.
Thank you,
Robert Melvin
Northeast Region State Government Affairs Director
R Street Institute
rmelvin@rstreet.org
[1] Virginia General Assembly, 2026 Legislative Session, House Bill 1124, Last accessed February 3, 2026. https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB1124
[2] Merissa A. Yellman, et al., “Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths – United States and 28 Other High-Income Countries, 2015-2019,” United States Centers for Disease Control, July 1, 2022. Santokh Singh, “Critical Reasons for Crashes Investigated in the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey,” NHTSA, February 2015. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/812506. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities and Fatality Rates, 1899-2022,” https://cdan.dot.gov/tsftables/Fatalities%20and%20Fatality%20Rates.pdf.
[3] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities and Fatality Rates, 1899-2023,” https://cdan.dot.gov/tsftables/Fatalities%20and%20Fatality%20Rates.pdf.
[4] CDC, “Global Road Safety,” May 16, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/transportation-safety/global/index.html.
[5] Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Virginia Highway Safety Office, “2024 Virginia Traffic Crash facts,” Virginia Driving Trends, Last Accessed February 3, 2026. https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/documents/VA-traffic-crash-2024.pdf
[6] Matthew Yglesias, “Self-driving cars are underhyped,” Slow Boring, Apr., 25, 2024. https://www.slowboring.com/p/self-driving-cares-are-underhyped.
[7] “Do Autonomous Vehicles Outperform Latest-Generation Human-Driven Vehicles? A Comparison to Waymo’s Auto Liability Insurance Claims at 25 Million Miles,” 2024. https://waymo.com/research/do-autonomous-vehicles-outperform-latest-generation-human-driven-vehicles-25-million-miles.
[8] Gale Pooley, “Waymo Drivers Are Way Safer (10x) Than Humans,” Human Progress, Jan. 7, 2025. https://humanprogress.org/waymo-drivers-are-way-safer-10x-than-humans.Timothy B. Lee, “Human drivers are to blame for most serious Waymo collisions,” Understanding AI, Sept. 10, 2024. https://www.understandingai.org/p/human-drivers-are-to-blame-for-most.
[9] Waymo, “Waymo Safety Impact: Waymo Driver Compared to Human Benchmarks,” Last accessed February 24, 2025. https://waymo.com/safety/impact/.
[10] Kareem Othman, “Exploring the implications of autonomous vehicles: a comprehensive review,” Innovative Infrastructure Solutions, March 1, 2022. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8885781/.
[11] Ariel Wolf, et al., “State Autonomous Vehicle Laws and Regulations,” Venable LLP, December 2024, https://books.venable.com/Autonomous-Vehicles/4/.
[12] Ibid.