Heavy-duty autonomous trucks are officially rolling on California roads. Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI have received permits to test their self-driving Class 8 trucks on public roads, marking a key step toward large-scale automated freight corridors.
What did California change?
The California DMV’s updated rules, approved on April 28, lifted the ban on testing driverless vehicles over 10,000 pounds on public roads. This allows companies to:
- test autonomous driving systems on real heavy trucks,
- collect data under real-world operating conditions,
- develop and validate technology closer to their California engineering hubs.
Kodiak has already started running a small fleet of test trucks around its Mountain View office.
Safety constraints and test conditions
The current permits are far from “free roaming” and include strict limitations:
- a safety operator must always sit behind the wheel;
- tests are limited to roads with a 25 mph or lower speed limit;
- trucks are not allowed to deviate from pre-approved, direct routes;
- companies must comply with DMV requirements on insurance, vehicle registration and safety driver qualifications.
Because of earlier restrictions in California, both Aurora and Kodiak had focused most of their testing and commercial operations in Texas. Aurora launched a commercial service on the Dallas–Houston corridor in May 2025 and has been expanding toward Fort Worth–El Paso and Phoenix. Kodiak started commercial driverless operations in Texas in January 2025.
Legal pushback and public concerns
Not everyone in California is happy to see driverless semis on the freeway. The Teamsters California union has sued the DMV in Alameda County Superior Court, arguing that the agency:
failed to properly analyze the economic impact and did not adequately inform the public,
and that it downplayed potential safety risks that autonomous trucks may pose to other road users.
The companies counter that the new framework finally lets them develop and validate their technology in the same state where many of their engineers are based.
How autonomous freight will affect road safety, jobs and logistics costs is likely to remain a central debate in the transport industry over the coming years.
Source: ShiftDelete (TR)
