Last Updated August 27, 2025
It’s a question that’s become a hot topic in the world of transportation: when will self-driving trucks take over the road?
Truckers might naturally be concerned about being replaced by autonomous trucks. In fact, the first self-driving trucks have already been introduced.
These driverless trucks could pose a threat to truckers’ jobs and reshape the industry landscape. However, determining when and if this might actually happen isn’t all that straightforward.
To best gauge where things are headed, it’s important to understand how we got to where we are now, the current landscape of the trucking industry, and recent developments surrounding self-driving trucks that could offer insights into the future.
Self-Driving Trucks Are Already on the Roads
While not yet the norm, commercial driverless trucks can already be seen on U.S. highways.
Earlier in 2025, Aurora Innovation, Inc. announced that it had begun driverless deliveries in Texas, reaching 1,200 miles without a driver in the Dallas and Houston areas. The press release stated they plan to do the same in West Texas and Arizona by the end of 2025.
And that’s not all. Gatik is another autonomous trucking company that has deployed more than 100 self-driving trucks in recent years, mostly operating in Texas, Arkansas, and Canada. The company’s CEO suggested this figure is expected to rise to “thousands of trucks” for some of the largest private fleets in the world.
Regulations Surrounding Self-Driving Trucks
It won’t be so easy to replicate what Aurora and Gatik have achieved throughout the rest of the country. As it stands, 24 states allow driverless operations, 16 states have no specific regulations, and 10 states have strict limitations on all autonomous vehicles, per the Washington Post.
However, this could change very soon. The U.S. Congress recently proposed a bill that would unify the national framework for autonomous trucking. Coined the “Autonomous Mobility Ensuring Regulation, Innovation, Commerce, and Advancement Driving Reliability in Vehicle Efficiency and Safety Act,” this would allow any Level 4 or 5 automated driving system to operate on the interstate without a driver behind the wheel. Level 4 indicates high automation in operating a commercial truck, while Level 5 represents full automation.
Gaps Filled by Self-Driving Trucks
There’s a particular motive behind Congress pushing to accelerate autonomous trucking: addressing the national truck driver shortage. The shortage has generally fluctuated between 60,000 and 80,000 drivers over the past several years.
Self-driving trucks wouldn’t fill the driver gap, since there wouldn’t actually be an increase in drivers. But it could help increase trucking capacity and potentially improve overall efficiency within the industry by solving other industry challenges, such as idle trucks costing the industry $95.5 million every week.
AI’s Impact in Trucking Beyond Autonomous Trucks
Self-driving trucks are made possible by incredibly powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can replicate human intelligence processes. This type of AI-powered machine learning is enabled by predictive analytics, allowing machines to process highly complex algorithms and large datasets.
But the impact of AI in trucking is felt well beyond just the introduction of self-driving trucks. AI has already had several undeniable effects on the industry, most of them positive.
For instance, virtual reality systems have been created to help with driver training. AI is also responsible for remarkably useful tools to boost safety and efficiency, such as route planning, accident prevention systems, driver monitoring systems, and predictive maintenance.
With this in mind, there will likely be many more unforeseen impacts in trucking over the next several years, going beyond self-driving trucks.
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The Future of Self-Driving Trucks: Will Drivers Be Replaced?
One recent study revealed that autonomous trucking could soar into a $600-billion industry by 2035. This is a clear sign that more and more driverless trucks will be on the road throughout the next decade.
It’s difficult to put an exact figure on how many autonomous trucks there will be, how many truckers will be replaced, and when any of this might happen. Unpredictable changes regarding autonomous trucking regulations will also likely play a major role in just how many self-driving trucks we will see on U.S. highways.
Regardless, there will remain the need for human oversight, especially in the early stages of autonomous trucking. Even if some truck driving jobs disappear due to autonomous trucks, brand-new jobs related to supervision and control of such trucks will likely emerge.
It’s important for truck drivers—and anyone in the freight industry—to stay up to date with how this topic evolves. Things can change quickly, as evidenced by Congress’s push to speed up the timeline toward automation.
Still, there are plenty of items to address, particularly surrounding self-driving truck safety, before we see a widespread rollout of driverless trucks on the road.
Michael McCareins is the Content Marketing Associate at altLINE, where he is dedicated to creating and managing optimal content for readers. Following a brief career in media relations, Michael has discovered a passion for content marketing through developing unique, informative content to help audiences better understand ideas and topics such as invoice factoring and A/R financing.
