diff --git a/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/commands/drive.dart b/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/commands/drive.dart
index 8ae32ebf0f..abdd2992da 100644
--- a/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/commands/drive.dart
+++ b/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/commands/drive.dart
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import 'dart:async';
 
 import 'package:meta/meta.dart';
+import 'package:package_config/package_config_types.dart';
 
 import '../android/android_device.dart';
 import '../application_package.dart';
@@ -13,6 +14,7 @@ import '../base/common.dart';
 import '../base/file_system.dart';
 import '../base/logger.dart';
 import '../build_info.dart';
+import '../dart/package_map.dart';
 import '../device.dart';
 import '../drive/drive_service.dart';
 import '../globals.dart' as globals;
@@ -178,7 +180,12 @@ class DriveCommand extends RunCommandBase {
       logger: _logger,
       processUtils: globals.processUtils,
       dartSdkPath: globals.artifacts.getArtifactPath(Artifact.engineDartBinary),
-   );
+    );
+    final PackageConfig packageConfig = await loadPackageConfigWithLogging(
+      globals.fs.file('.packages'),
+      logger: _logger,
+      throwOnError: false,
+    ) ?? PackageConfig.empty;
     final DriverService driverService = _flutterDriverFactory.createDriverService(web);
     final BuildInfo buildInfo = getBuildInfo();
     final DebuggingOptions debuggingOptions = createDebuggingOptions();
@@ -220,6 +227,7 @@ class DriveCommand extends RunCommandBase {
       testFile,
       stringsArg('test-arguments'),
       <String, String>{},
+      packageConfig,
       chromeBinary: stringArg('chrome-binary'),
       headless: boolArg('headless'),
       browserDimension: stringArg('browser-dimension').split(','),
diff --git a/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/drive_service.dart b/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/drive_service.dart
index f8e64c53aa..67242407cb 100644
--- a/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/drive_service.dart
+++ b/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/drive_service.dart
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import 'package:dds/dds.dart' as dds;
 import 'package:file/file.dart';
 import 'package:meta/meta.dart';
+import 'package:package_config/package_config_types.dart';
 import 'package:vm_service/vm_service.dart' as vm_service;
 
 import '../application_package.dart';
@@ -77,7 +78,8 @@ abstract class DriverService {
   Future<int> startTest(
     String testFile,
     List<String> arguments,
-    Map<String, String> environment, {
+    Map<String, String> environment,
+    PackageConfig packageConfig, {
     bool headless,
     String chromeBinary,
     String browserName,
@@ -224,7 +226,8 @@ class FlutterDriverService extends DriverService {
   Future<int> startTest(
     String testFile,
     List<String> arguments,
-    Map<String, String> environment, {
+    Map<String, String> environment,
+    PackageConfig packageConfig, {
     bool headless,
     String chromeBinary,
     String browserName,
@@ -232,14 +235,16 @@ class FlutterDriverService extends DriverService {
     int driverPort,
     List<String> browserDimension,
   }) async {
+    // Check if package:test is available. If not, fall back to invoking
+    // the test script directly. `pub run test` is strictly better because
+    // in the even that a socket or something similar is left open, the
+    // test runner will correctly shutdown the VM instead of hanging forever.
     return _processUtils.stream(<String>[
       _dartSdkPath,
-      'pub',
-      'run',
-      'test',
-      ...arguments,
-      testFile,
-      '-rexpanded',
+      if (packageConfig['test'] != null)
+        ...<String>['pub', 'run', 'test', ...arguments, testFile, '-rexpanded']
+      else
+        ...<String>[...arguments, testFile, '-rexpanded'],
     ], environment: <String, String>{
       'VM_SERVICE_URL': _vmServiceUri,
       ...environment,
diff --git a/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/web_driver_service.dart b/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/web_driver_service.dart
index 12087d093f..21a6a9b9b4 100644
--- a/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/web_driver_service.dart
+++ b/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/drive/web_driver_service.dart
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import 'dart:math' as math;
 
 import 'package:file/file.dart';
 import 'package:meta/meta.dart';
+import 'package:package_config/package_config.dart';
 import 'package:webdriver/async_io.dart' as async_io;
 
 import '../base/common.dart';
@@ -82,7 +83,7 @@ class WebDriverService extends DriverService {
   }
 
   @override
-  Future<int> startTest(String testFile, List<String> arguments, Map<String, String> environment, {
+  Future<int> startTest(String testFile, List<String> arguments, Map<String, String> environment, PackageConfig packageConfig, {
     bool headless,
     String chromeBinary,
     String browserName,
diff --git a/packages/flutter_tools/test/general.shard/drive/drive_service_test.dart b/packages/flutter_tools/test/general.shard/drive/drive_service_test.dart
index a21602e94f..ca396f8020 100644
--- a/packages/flutter_tools/test/general.shard/drive/drive_service_test.dart
+++ b/packages/flutter_tools/test/general.shard/drive/drive_service_test.dart
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import 'package:flutter_tools/src/device.dart';
 import 'package:flutter_tools/src/drive/drive_service.dart';
 import 'package:flutter_tools/src/vmservice.dart';
 import 'package:mockito/mockito.dart';
+import 'package:package_config/package_config_types.dart';
 import 'package:process/process.dart';
 import 'package:vm_service/vm_service.dart' as vm_service;
 
@@ -168,11 +169,43 @@ void main() {
       'foo.test',
       <String>['--enable-experiment=non-nullable'],
       <String, String>{'FOO': 'BAR'},
+      PackageConfig(<Package>[Package('test', Uri.base)]),
     );
 
     expect(testResult, 23);
   });
 
+  testWithoutContext('Uses dart to execute the test if there is no package:test dependency', () async {
+    final FakeVmServiceHost fakeVmServiceHost = FakeVmServiceHost(requests: <FakeVmServiceRequest>[
+      getVM,
+    ]);
+    final FakeProcessManager processManager = FakeProcessManager.list(<FakeCommand>[
+      const FakeCommand(
+        command: <String>['dart', '--enable-experiment=non-nullable', 'foo.test', '-rexpanded'],
+        exitCode: 23,
+        environment: <String, String>{
+          'FOO': 'BAR',
+          'VM_SERVICE_URL': 'http://127.0.0.1:1234/' // dds forwarded URI
+        },
+      ),
+    ]);
+    final DriverService driverService = setUpDriverService(processManager: processManager, vmService: fakeVmServiceHost.vmService);
+    final Device device = FakeDevice(LaunchResult.succeeded(
+      observatoryUri: Uri.parse('http://127.0.0.1:63426/1UasC_ihpXY=/'),
+    ));
+
+    await driverService.start(BuildInfo.profile, device, DebuggingOptions.enabled(BuildInfo.profile), true);
+    final int testResult = await driverService.startTest(
+      'foo.test',
+      <String>['--enable-experiment=non-nullable'],
+      <String, String>{'FOO': 'BAR'},
+      PackageConfig.empty,
+    );
+
+    expect(testResult, 23);
+  });
+
+
   testWithoutContext('Connects to device VM Service and runs test application without dds', () async {
     final FakeVmServiceHost fakeVmServiceHost = FakeVmServiceHost(requests: <FakeVmServiceRequest>[
       getVM,
@@ -196,6 +229,7 @@ void main() {
       'foo.test',
       <String>[],
       <String, String>{},
+      PackageConfig(<Package>[Package('test', Uri.base)]),
     );
 
     expect(testResult, 11);