‘No serious complaints’: Lawmakers weigh impact of driverless vehicles in Texas - Community Impact

The move builds on the state's first autonomous vehicle safety law from 2017, which set up a regulatory framework and deliberately cut local officials out of the decision-making process. That structure remains intact. Cities and counties still cannot set their own rules for driverless cars or semitrucks rolling through their streets.

The bill comes as driverless vehicles show up more frequently across Texas' largest cities. Legislators appear to be threading a careful line, expanding state oversight without signaling the industry has caused major problems. The phrase floating around Austin during the debate was "no serious complaints," which tells you something about where lawmakers think things stand.

For people here in Lubbock, this matters even if you haven't spotted a driverless vehicle on 19th Street yet. The new authorization requirement means any AV company eyeing expansion into West Texas markets has to clear a state-level hurdle first, and the DMV now holds the regulatory pen, not local city hall. That limits how much say Lubbock officials would have if an AV operator decided to set up routes here.

It took eight years after that first 2017 law for the state to build a formal approval process.