Bill aims to study how self-driving vehicles can be integrated into
Illinois transit
[October 23, 2026]
By Bernarda Malevska
CHICAGO — Legislation to test autonomous vehicles in Illinois may come
up again in the November veto session, though the lead sponsor of a
pilot bill says there’s still a lot of work to do.
Autonomous vehicles, or AVs, are motor vehicles that have an automated
driving system. Currently, AVs aren’t available for purchase, but
robotaxis operate in places across the country, including San Francisco,
Arizona, and Austin, Texas.
Driverless AVs are not yet authorized in Illinois. But state Rep. Kam
Buckner, D-Chicago, has called for a formal framework, through House
Bill 4663, to test and deploy self-driving cars in the state. The bill
thus far has been stalled in the General Assembly.
Buckner has also urged the newly founded Northern Illinois Transit
Authority, or NITA, to study how autonomous vehicles could work
alongside the existing public transport network, if they’re made legal.
Buckner’s bill would create the Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Project Act,
which would restrict testing to counties with over a million residents,
as well as Sangamon County or the Metro East region of Madison, St.
Clair and Monroe counties.
But this legislation will not authorize AVs on the streets immediately,
Buckner said.
“What we’re asking for is a very controlled program with a certain
number of cars on the road,” said Buckner. “We can actually take that
data and figure out what’s the best way to implement the policy.”
Buckner also said the legislation aims to determine Illinois’ specific
needs through research and proper implementation.
“I don’t want Illinois to take everybody else’s word for it. I want
Illinois to actually do the work, to look through the processes and get
the political processes in place, and to walk away and say what we did
when no other state did, which is study this intensely, intentionally,
and figure out what the way forward was,” Buckner said.
Jim Merrell, advocacy director with the Active Transportation Alliance
in Chicago, said Illinois should allow local governments to pass
regulations on AVs beyond what’s in state law. This differs from House
Bill 4663, which he said preempts local authority in some ways, meaning
state laws override local ones.
“We think that’s something that’s going to be really important for a
city like Chicago to be able to regulate how and where autonomous
vehicles are allowed to operate to make sure that they’re not
interfering with other infrastructure or transit usage like bus stops or
bike lanes,” Merrell said.
The Active Transportation Alliance pointed to another stalled piece of
legislation in the General Assembly — House Bill 4789 — that would
establish the Automated Driving Systems Development Act, which would
introduce stronger implementation measures and create a review committee
within the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The potential impacts
One issue AVs can solve in Illinois is the first- and last-mile problem,
especially in neighborhoods where the last station of public transport
is far from passengers’ homes, Buckner said.
“People who live on that side of the South Side, which is where I grew
up, don’t have direct access to the transit hubs, right, and so we’re
looking to change that,” Buckner said.
Merrell said there are more efficient ways to solve this problem, like
expanding transit service, improving bus reliability, and creating bike
lanes.
“Inside the city, you still would run into that space efficiency issue,
while there are plenty of other alternatives that are much more
efficient and sustainable that are already working,” Merrell said.
Although public transport is still the goal, it takes time to build,
Buckner said. For instance, the Red Line Extension project, which would
extend the CTA line to 130th Street in South Chicago, won’t be completed
until 2030.
“In the meantime, we got to have ways for folks to get from their
communities, specifically communities of color that are disconnected to
these systems,” Buckner said.
But autonomous vehicles at high-congestion points may worsen traffic,
said Dany Robles, senior legislative director at the Illinois
Environmental Council.
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A Google-operated Waymo vehicle drives through Chicago’s Near North
Side, with a driver, as the company begins testing and mapping the
city in March 2026. (Medill Illinois News Bureau photo by Georgia
Epiphaniou)
“It really comes down to, how are they integrated into more congested
areas so that we’re not continuing to exacerbate those congestions and
pollution from other vehicles around them,” said Robles.
For the Illinois Environmental Council, the approach to analyzing AVs
includes several angles, Robles said.
“A lot of AVs are electric vehicles — they’re pulling resources from
renewable energy, but then there’s a lot of emerging concerns too
surrounding the loss of jobs in the vehicle space or in the shared
driver space,” Robles said.
This is the reason why some labor unions have opposed the Autonomous
Vehicle Pilot Project Act. Among them is Service Employees International
Union Local 1, which serves five Midwestern states.
Bailey Koch-Farwana, a union spokesperson, said that according to their
economic analysis, every AV that hits the road replaces four human
drivers. This is because AVs can operate 24/7 and do not need breaks.
But there are ways to balance this outcome, Koch-Farwana said.
“There’s a just transition that could happen, you know, for every driver
that leaves the app, like the Uber or Lyft app, then a (driverless car)
can enter the road,” Koch-Farwana said. “Right now, there’s nothing in
that legislation that regulates that or even cares about the working
people behind it.”
Buckner responded to criticism that AVs will take jobs away from
rideshare drivers by saying that everyone needs to be part of the
conversation as researchers explore how to implement these vehicles
efficiently in the future.
On the other hand, Koch-Farwana said labor unions and rideshare drivers,
who have been unionized since August, still haven’t been invited to the
table.
What are the next steps?
Buckner, in his letter to NITA, pointed to the Bay Area as a potential
model for integrating AVs into public transit.
The San Francisco Bay Area has a program that incentivizes autonomous
vehicles to solve the first- and last-mile problem. Passengers who use
Waymo, a company owned by Google that operates robotaxis, and go on to
public transport within two hours get a $2.85 credit for future Waymo
trips, according to Streetsblog San Francisco.
Buckner also said the state does not have to follow this exact example
of regional planning.
“I am not going into this with my mind made up about what I want. The
only thing I want is data,” said Buckner. “I want people to be able to
utilize them (AVs) and see if they make sense for them. And I want data
for it to come back and then make an informed decision.”
For research on potential AV implementation to begin, House Bill 4663
needs to clear the House Rules Committee, be assigned to a substantive
standing committee, like the Transportation or Executive Committee, pass
the Full House, and repeat the process in the Senate.
When asked whether the push could occur during the November veto
session, Buckner said he is respecting the legislative process.
“I hope so, but I’ve also said that I am not interested in rushing this.
We’re still having conversations and still negotiating,” Buckner said.
“And when it’s ready to go, we’re going to go full speed.”
Capitol News Illinois
is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state
government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded
primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
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