Rachel Ryan, Driverless Traffic Stops -- Virginia Journal of Criminal Law (forthcoming)

Pepperdine Caruso Law third-year student Rachel Ryan's article, Driverless Traffic Stops, has been accepted for publication in the Virginia Journal of Criminal Law. The article will be published in spring 2027. 

Abstract of Driverless Traffic Stops:

The rise of fully autonomous vehicles threatens to eliminate one of the most powerful tools in modern policing: the pretextual traffic stop. Under Whren v. United States, police may initiate a traffic stop whenever they have reasonable suspicion to believe that a traffic violation has occurred, regardless of their subjective motivations. Because human drivers routinely commit minor traffic violations, Whren provides law enforcement with broad discretion to use traffic stops as gateways to more invasive investigations, with particularly troubling consequences for racial minorities. However, fully autonomous vehicles are programmed to comply with traffic laws and therefore substantially reduce the human errors that have historically supplied the legal justification for such stops.

This technological shift raises a novel question for Fourth Amendment doctrine: Should courts adjust existing doctrine to preserve law enforcement’s investigative capacity after traditional traffic stops become increasingly unavailable? Applying Professor Orin Kerr’s equilibrium-adjustment theory, this Article examines two potential responses: (1) employing suspicionless roadside interventions through doctrines such as special needs, community caretaking, and consent; or (2) shifting away from traffic stops entirely and instead relying on digital surveillance technologies. Importantly, expanding the government’s authority to conduct traffic stops of autonomous vehicles risks replacing the discretionary power recognized in Whren with an even broader regime of suspicionless policing. Utilizing emerging surveillance technologies, however, would provide law enforcement with alternative means of detecting and investigating crime while also acting to counterbalance increases in individual privacy.

Ultimately, this Article argues that the disappearance of pretextual traffic stops should be understood not as a disruption requiring judicial intervention, but as a potential corrective to decades of constitutionally sanctioned discretionary policing. As autonomous vehicles reduce opportunities for pretextual stops, expanding digital surveillance will offset that loss by enhancing law enforcement’s investigative capabilities, preserving the balance between government power and individual privacy.