Self-driving trucks begin testing on California highways

Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test self-driving trucks on public roads, and Kodiak has already begun, starting with a handful of test trucks primarily around its Mountain View office. Both companies applied for the permits this spring under updated DMV rules, approved April 28, that lifted a ban on testing driverless vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds on public roads and created a regulatory path for companies to test — and eventually deploy — autonomous heavy-duty vehicles.

The DMV said Kodiak and Aurora met its permitting criteria, including safety, insurance, vehicle registration, and safety-driver qualifications. The permits require a human safety operator behind the wheel and bar companies from operating on roads with a posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour or less, unless on a direct route between destinations.

Despite those restrictions, the prospect of self-driving trucks on California highways continues to draw opposition. Last week, Teamsters California sued the state’s DMV in Alameda County Superior Court, alleging the agency circumvented laws requiring it to study and publicly disclose the potential economic impact of allowing self-driving trucks on public roads, and that it failed to consider the safety risks to other motorists.

Aurora and Kodiak are both based in California but had focused their testing and deployment in Texas, which until recently banned autonomous heavy-duty trucks in-state. Aurora launched a self-driving truck service in Texas in May 2025, starting with a Dallas-to-Houston route and later adding routes including Fort Worth-El Paso, El Paso-Phoenix, Fort Worth-Phoenix, and Laredo-Dallas. Kodiak began commercial driverless truck operations in an off-road environment in West Texas’ Permian Basin in January 2025, later expanding to on-highway routes including Dallas-Houston.

Why it matters

The permits mark the first real test of California’s new framework for autonomous trucking — and a legal fight over it, via the Teamsters lawsuit, that could shape how fast self-driving trucks reach the state’s own roads.