Testimony in Opposition to DE SB 46, Requiring Human Operators in Large Commercial Autonomous Vehicles
Testimony from:
Robert Melvin, Northeast Region Director, R Street Institute
In OPPOSITION to Senate Bill 46, “An Act to Amend Title 21 of the Delaware Code Relating to Autonomous Vehicles.”
May 14, 2025
House Transportation Committee
Chairman Morrison and members of the committee,
My name is Robert Melvin, and I am the Northeast region director at the R Street Institute (RSI), which is 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 SB 46 carries considerable importance for us.
While SB 46 may be well intentioned, the bill is fundamentally flawed on its merits. This measure would preclude large commercial, highly autonomous trucks from driving on public roads unless a human operator is physically present in the vehicle.[1] Imposing a “driver-in” requirement on heavy-duty autonomous vehicles (AVs) a will discourage the introduction and utilization of safer trucks in Delaware—effectively subverting efforts to improve road safety.
The United States is facing a dire situation with respect to motor vehicle deaths. We have the highest motor vehicle death rates among high-income countries—11.1 per 100,000 people, over twice the average—mostly due to human error, according to the Centers for Disease Control and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.[2] Truck-related crashes are equally alarming: of 963 fatal incidents studied by the National Motor Carrier Safety Administration, truck drivers were at fault in 87 percent of those cases.[3] With overall motor vehicle fatalities nearing 42,000 annually and rising in Delaware, we must use every available tool to improve road safety.[4]
Several factors contribute to this issue, but leading causes include human error and negligent behavior like drunk driving, aggressive driving, and driving distracted.[5] Despite efforts to reduce impaired driving, states like Delaware continue to see rising rates of dangerous behavior behind the wheel.[6]
Self-driving vehicles would help make roadways even safer. A study by Swiss Re, a leading global reinsurer, analyzed 25.3 million autonomous miles driven by autonomous vehicles 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] These findings suggest AVs are over ten times safer, with safety performance doubling roughly every five years.[8] Notably, in the rare cases where autonomous vehicles were involved in crashes, human drivers were most often at fault.[9]
Additional data reinforces this trend: Autonomous vehicles were involved in 62 percent fewer police-reported crashes, 78 percent fewer injury-related incidents, and 81 percent fewer airbag deployments than vehicles operated by people.[10] Given that crashes contribute approximately $23 billion annually in U.S. medical costs, a 90 percent drop in collision rates could save over $20 billion each year.[11]
Public safety is critical, but we shouldn’t overlook the demographic challenges facing the trucking industry over the next several years and the logistical benefits these self-driving vehicles could provide. Over the next five years, the growing shortage of truck drivers will pose a serious challenge to the timely delivery of goods, with an estimated shortfall of 160,000 drivers projected by 2030.[12] As this deficit intensifies, freight transportation costs are expected to rise—assuming other factors remain constant.
Autonomous trucking can greatly enhance efficiency by operating without federally mandated rest breaks, allowing for nearly double the daily range of human-driven trucks. In March 2022, a Kodiak Robotics truck, in partnership with U.S. Xpress, completed four round trips between Dallas and Atlanta in five days—covering over 6,300 miles and delivering eight loads, a task that would normally take a human driver 10 days.[13]
While some supporters of the bill may express caution about autonomous vehicle technology, it’s important to note that this is no longer unproven or experimental. Autonomous vehicles have already been widely tested and adopted, with 30 states and the District of Columbia authorizing their operation on public roads.[14] Most other states, including Delaware, have chosen not to restrict their use to date.[15] If the highly restrictive SB 46 moves forward, Delaware risks becoming an outlier by rejecting a rapidly advancing and well-established technology.
Overly restrictive state mandates on the autonomous vehicle market—such as in SB 46—could work against broader goals and compromise overall road safety. Rather than imposing rigid mandates, Delaware should aim to position itself as a forward-thinking leader in AV innovation. The state would be better served by adopting legislative models from other jurisdictions that offer more adaptable and supportive legal frameworks for testing and deploying autonomous vehicles—thereby aligning safety with technological progress. For these reasons, we urge your opposition to SB 46.
Thank you,
Robert Melvin
Northeast Region State Government Affairs Director
R Street Institute
rmelvin@rstreet.org
[1] Delaware General Assembly, 2025 Legislative Session, Senate Bill 46, Last accessed May 13, 2025. https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=141797&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB46.
[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 and Fatality Rates.pdf.
[3] Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Office of Research and Analysis, “The Large Truck Crash Causation Study—Analysis Brief,” publication no. FMCSA-RRA-07-017, July 2007. https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/research-and-analysis/large-truck-crash-causation-study-analysis-brief.
[4] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, State Traffic Safety Information, National Traffic Safety Facts: Delaware 2019-2023, https://cdan.dot.gov/SASJobExecution.
[5] CDC, “Global Road Safety,” May 16, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/transportation-safety/global/index.html.
[6] Craig Anderson, “Keeping tabs on Delaware’s DUI arrests,” Daily State News, July 30, 2024. https://baytobaynews.com/stories/dui-arrests-in-delaware-a-continuing-concern,141187.
Scott Calvert, “Drunken-Driving Deaths Are Up. Why Are DUI Arrests Down?” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/drunk-driving-deaths-rise-dui-arrests-down-92d53ea7.
[7] Luigi Di Lillo, et al., “Do Autonomous Drivers Outperform Latest-Generation Human-Driven Vehicles? A comparison to Waymo’s Auto Liability Insurance Claims at 25 million Miles,” Waymo, 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.
[9] 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.
[10] Waymo, “Waymo Safety Impact: Waymo Driver Compared to Human Benchmarks,” Last accessed February 24, 2025. https://waymo.com/safety/impact/.
[11] 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/.
[12] Alex Leslie, Ph.D., “An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2022 Update,” American Transportation Research Institute, August 2022. https://truckingresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/ATRI-Operational-Cost-of-Trucking-2022.pdf.
[13] Cade Metz, “The Long Road to Driverless Trucks,” New York Times, Sept. 28, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/business/driverless-trucks-highways.html
[14] Ariel Wolf, et al., “State Autonomous Vehicle Laws and Regulations,” Venable LLP, December 2024, https://books.venable.com/Autonomous-Vehicles/4/.
[15] Ibid.