State Sen. Kelly Hancock, who sponsored the state's 2017 autonomous-driving legislation, said the legislature wanted to promote the industry's growth in a competitive marketplace and avoid barriers to entry.
"Being a conservative, I wanted to minimize government's impact," he told Reuters. "We can't have a thousand different regulations. That's how you kill an industry."
Musk moved Tesla's headquarters to Austin in late 2021 from California, where regulators tightly control where and how firms can operate autonomous vehicles. The only two companies that have secured permits to operate paid driverless taxi services to date, General Motors' Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo, logged millions of miles with regulators under more restrictive permits before getting approval to pick up passengers. (Cruise has since halted robotaxi operations).