California Opens Public Roads to Autonomous Heavy-Duty Trucks

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has granted testing permits to Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, allowing the two companies to operate autonomous vehicle technology on public roads, as TechCrunch first reported. The permits follow the April 28 approval of updated DMV rules that lifted a previous ban on driverless vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds.

Kodiak AI has already begun testing with a small number of trucks, primarily centered around its Mountain View office. To secure these permits, both companies had to satisfy DMV criteria regarding vehicle registration, insurance, safety, and the qualification of safety drivers. The current regulatory framework requires a human safety operator to remain behind the wheel and restricts operations on roads with speed limits of 25 mph or less, unless the vehicle is on a direct route between destinations.

Prior to these rule changes, Aurora and Kodiak focused their efforts in Texas. According to TechCrunch, Aurora's self-driving truck service began in May 2025 with a Dallas-to-Houston route, later expanding to include paths between Fort Worth and El Paso, El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Laredo and Dallas. Kodiak began commercial driverless operations in January 2025 in the Permian Basin before expanding to on-highway routes, including Dallas to Houston.

However, the shift in regulatory policy is facing legal challenges. Teamsters California filed a lawsuit in the Alameda County Superior Court, alleging the DMV ignored safety risks to motorists and bypassed laws that require the agency to publicly disclose and study the potential economic impacts of autonomous trucking.