The out-of-control big rig without a driver behind the wheel careens through a cornfield, barrels across a highway, and causes a fiery explosion at a gas station. All the while, an unemployed truck driver sits idle at the counter of a roadside diner.

This was the premise of Monster.com’s 2003 Super Bowl TV advertisement, narrated by trucking legend and radio host Bill Mack, as the employment website sought to attract more blue-collar positions. However, well before Super Bowl 37 kicked off, Monster.com found itself in a public relations nightmare.

As word of the TV spot spread in the days leading up to the game, the American Trucking Associations, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, and many other trucking groups jointly denounced it. Even the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration criticized the ad for misrepresenting truck drivers’ professionalism.

An estimated 138 million viewers tuned in on Jan. 26, 2003, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Oakland Raiders 48-21, and Monster.com ran this driverless truck TV spot. The complete one-minute version features more mayhem and even an exploding cow.

At the time, it was the second most-watched Super Bowl in history, and I was working at Transport Topics, located inside ATA’s headquarters in Alexandria, Va. I witnessed Andrew McKelvey, the chairman of Monster.com’s parent company, visit ATA President Bill Graves as part of a public-relations apology tour shortly after the Super Bowl. 

McKelvey had already suspended the ad, which cost $2.2 million for the Super Bowl time slot and $1 million in production costs. The company paid for an updated version — with trucking’s blessing — that ran during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in March. Monster.com also produced a pro-trucking ad. 

‘I never thought of truck drivers as dangerous’

Looking back on the 2003 media coverage, McKelvey repeatedly expressed regret for alienating trucking while trying to highlight the industry through a tongue-in-cheek ad.

Twenty-three years later, John Kearse, one of the creative writers on the ad, also regrets how the incident played out. “Honestly, I never thought of truck drivers as dangerous,” Kearse said in an email. “I still feel like car drivers are way more dangerous.”

He shared that he didn’t know much about trucking until the blowback started. To this day, he still loves the ad, “simply as an ad guy.” For Kearse, who also worked on the provocative anti-tobacco “Truth” campaign, the Monster.com ad is the only one ever pulled because of outside lobbying pressure.

The majority of the reader feedback received in the days after the Super Bowl believed the trucking groups were being too sensitive, and there were positives to free publicity on the most-watched program of the year, explosions and all. Several pointed out the obvious: that the truck was operating unsafely because there was no driver. 

That was the exact point of the ad in 2003, Kearse said. “A vehicle needs a driver, and they — and other blue-collar jobs — are now available on Monster, which up to that point was perceived as white collar,” he explained. 

Does a vehicle need a driver?

Back then, the controversy centered only on perceptions of truck safety. This was a simpler time, before Facebook and the iPhone. More than a decade passed before the first widely viewed autonomous truck demonstrations took place in Europe and the United States. 

But now in 2026, does a vehicle actually need a driver? In a handful of cities like San Francisco, robotaxis are commonplace, even if a recent blackout showed there are still shortcomings.

For the trucking industry, so much of the Department of Transportation’s public discussion has focused on commercial driver’s license qualifications, English-language proficiency standards, and the shutdown of subpar training schools. These are pieces of the larger Pro-Trucker Package unveiled by DOT last June.

At the same time, DOT officials have made clear on numerous occasions that they want to streamline the path for autonomous operations through exemptions and the development of a national framework for autonomous vehicle regulations. Likewise, bipartisan legislation under consideration in Congress could advance autonomous trucking regulations. 

These efforts are really just attempts to harmonize rules and keep pace with autonomous vehicle technology, which is advancing faster than regulatory structure. Every week, new autonomous milestones are being reported, and additional real-world driverless operations are getting underway. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean hundreds of trucks without a trained human in the cab will be heading down your nearest interstate this winter. But it feels inevitable that autonomous trucking will be an important part of the supply chain’s future, especially as freight demand eventually rebounds and more experienced professional drivers retire. 

That brings us back to Kearse, who was part of the creative team whose vision brought that driverless truck to our TV screens 23 Super Bowls ago. How does he feel about driverless technology in 2026?

“Seems super dangerous,” Kearse said, especially when considering how fast people tend to drive. 

Share your thoughts about Monster.com’s Super Bowl ad or autonomous technology below.