BUILD America 250 Act orders DOT to write AV truck safety rule

When does the BUILD America 250 Act let autonomous trucks operate nationwide?

It doesn't. The BUILD America 250 Act, released May 17 by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., and ranking member Rick Larsen, D-Wash.: does not authorize a single driverless truck to operate. What it does is order the U.S. Department of Transportation to write a performance-based safety standard for automated driving systems (ADS) equipped commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce. The agency has two years from enactment to publish that rule. Until the rule is in place, nothing changes on the road.

The bill is a five-year surface transportation reauthorization that must pass before the current authorization expires September 30. Buried in the 1,000-plus pages is Subtitle E, titled Safe Integration of Autonomous Commercial Motor Vehicles: the first time Congress has attempted a national rulebook for driverless trucks.

What the bill requires DOT to do

The bill borrows the self-certification model that already governs conventional vehicle manufacturing. A manufacturer must certify to DOT that its automated driving system meets the federal standard. The company does so through what the bill calls a safety case, claims, arguments, and evidence that the system performs safely in the operational design domain the manufacturer specifies.

The safety case is the compliance document. The manufacturer files it with DOT. The agency does not pre-approve the system before it goes on the road. Instead, DOT can audit the safety case, demand additional data, and enforce the standard after the fact if the system fails to meet the performance requirements the rule will eventually spell out.

The bill does not define what those performance requirements are. That is the homework assignment DOT has two years to complete. The text directs the agency to write a performance-based standard, meaning the rule will specify outcomes the system must achieve, not prescribe the technology or design the manufacturer must use to achieve them.

Why the autonomous trucking industry wanted this

Kodiak AI founder and CEO Don Burnette called the bill historic and said it would replace today's patchwork of state rules with a single federal standard. That is the part of the bill the industry has wanted most. Right now, an AV truck manufacturer must navigate conflicting state laws on testing, deployment, and liability. Some states require a safety driver. Some do not. Some require pre-notification to state police. Some have no rule at all.

A federal standard would preempt state rules that conflict with the DOT performance standard once that standard is published. The bill does not say states lose all authority, states can still regulate insurance, registration, and traffic enforcement, but the safety performance requirements for the automated driving system itself would be federal.

The industry has chased this framework for years because a single federal rule is cheaper to comply with than 50 state rules, and because interstate freight moves across state lines where conflicting rules create operational dead zones.

What this means for FMCSA enforcement and carrier operating authority

The bill does not change FMCSA's authority over motor carriers. A carrier operating an AV-equipped truck still needs an active USDOT number, MC authority if operating for hire, cargo insurance, and a satisfactory safety rating. The automated driving system does not exempt the carrier from Hours of Service (HOS) rules, drug and alcohol testing, or CSA scoring, though how those rules apply when no driver is present is a question the DOT rulemaking will have to address.

The bill does not create a separate operating authority class for AV carriers. It does not waive the new entrant safety audit. It does not change the BMC-91 cargo bond requirement or the MCS-150 biennial update. What it does is add a new compliance layer: the manufacturer's safety case must be on file with DOT, and the carrier must operate the system within the operational design domain the manufacturer certified.

If a carrier operates an AV truck outside the certified domain, for example, in weather conditions the safety case excluded, that is a federal violation once the DOT rule is in effect. FMCSA will enforce it the same way the agency enforces an out-of-service ELD or an HOS falsification: through roadside inspection, compliance review, and CSA points.

What small fleets and owner-operators need to know

Nothing in this bill affects a conventional truck or a human driver. The rule DOT will write applies only to automated driving systems, Level 4 or Level 5 automation in SAE J3016 terms, meaning the system can perform all driving tasks in a defined domain without a human driver ready to take over.

If you drive a truck with adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, or automatic emergency braking, those are Level 1 or Level 2 systems. They are not automated driving systems under this bill. They remain regulated under FMCSA's existing rules and NHTSA's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. This bill does not touch them.

The bill also does not force any carrier to adopt AV technology. It creates a pathway for manufacturers who want to deploy driverless trucks in interstate commerce once DOT writes the rule. A small fleet that wants to keep running conventional equipment can do so. The bill does not sunset human-driven trucks. It does not phase out CDL requirements for drivers. It does not change the driver qualification file rules in 49 CFR 391.

The two-year clock and what happens next

The bill has not passed. It was released May 17. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark it up, the full House will vote, the Senate will write its own version, and the two chambers will conference the differences. That process has to finish before September 30 when the current surface transportation authorization expires.

If the bill passes with Subtitle E intact, the two-year clock starts on enactment. DOT will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking, take public comment, and issue a final rule. The final rule will specify the performance requirements an automated driving system must meet, the content and format of the safety case, the audit and enforcement procedures, and how the rule interacts with existing FMCSA regulations on driver qualification, HOS, and vehicle maintenance.

Until that rule is published, no AV truck manufacturer can self-certify under this framework. The bill is scaffolding. The DOT rule will be the finished building. And the rule does not exist yet.

What to watch for in the rulemaking

When DOT publishes the proposed rule, small fleets and owner-operators should comment if the rule affects their operations. Key questions the rulemaking will have to answer:

• How do HOS rules apply when no driver is present? Does the truck accrue driving time? Does it need a 10-hour break?
• Who is responsible for the pre-trip inspection: the carrier, the manufacturer, or a third-party technician?
• How does CSA scoring work when the system, not a driver, commits a violation?
• What insurance minimums apply? Does the BMC-91 cargo bond cover an AV truck, or does the carrier need additional coverage?
• Can a carrier verify the manufacturer's safety case is current and on file the same way a broker verifies a carrier's operating authority?

Those are compliance questions a small fleet will need answered before an AV truck shows up at a shipper's dock. The bill does not answer them. The DOT rule will.