Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways

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Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways

Kirsten Korosec

1:37 PM PDT · August 14, 2026

Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing self-driving trucks, have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test their autonomous vehicle technology on public roads. And Kodiak has already started.

Kodiak said it is starting with a handful of test trucks in California, primarily around its Mountain View office.

Both companies applied for testing permits this spring under updated rules approved by the California DMV, the agency that regulates autonomous vehicles in the state. Those rules, approved April 28, lifted a ban on driverless vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds from testing on public roads and provided a regulatory path for companies to test, and eventually deploy, autonomous heavy-duty vehicles.

Kodiak and Aurora met the DMV’s permitting criteria, including safety, insurance, vehicle registration, safety driver qualification, and other requirements, according to the agency. The testing permits require a human safety operator to be behind the wheel and prohibit companies from operating on roads where the posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour or less, unless they are on a “direct route” between destinations.

Despite those restrictions, the prospect of self-driving trucks on California’s highways continues to fuel opposition.

Last week, Teamsters California sued the state’s DMV, alleging that the agency circumvented laws requiring it to study and publicly disclose the possible economic impacts of allowing self-driving trucks on public roads. The lawsuit, filed in the state’s Superior Court in Alameda County, also accused the DMV of failing to consider the safety risks to motorists.

For autonomous vehicle developers, the new rules allow them to test and eventually deploy in their home territories.

Aurora and Kodiak are both based in California, but until recently focused their testing and deployment activities in Texas because of their home-state’s ban on autonomous heavy-duty trucks. Aurora launched a self-driving truck service in Texas in May 2025, starting with a Dallas-to-Houston route. The company has added more routes since, including between  Fort Worth and El Paso , El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Laredo and Dallas.

Kodiak began commercial driverless truck operations in January 2025 in an off-road environment in West Texas’ remote Permian Basin. Kodiak has since expanded to on-highway operations, including a route between Dallas and Houston.

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Kirsten Korosec

Transportation Editor

October 13 – 15

San Francisco

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