Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing autonomous trucks, 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 trial 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 the ban on testing self-driving vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds on public roads and provided a regulatory path for companies to test and eventually deploy heavy-duty autonomous vehicles.
Kodiak and Aurora met DMV permitting criteria, including safety, insurance, vehicle registration, safe driver qualification and other requirements, according to the agency. The test permits require a life safety operator to be behind the wheel and prohibit companies from operating on highways 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 roads continues to fuel opposition.
Last week, Teamsters California sued the state’s DMV, alleging the agency skirted laws requiring it to study and publicly disclose the potential economic impacts of allowing driverless trucks on public roads. The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Alameda County, also accused the DMV of failing to consider 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 based in California, but until recently focused their testing and deployment activities in Texas due to their home state’s ban on autonomous heavy-duty trucks. Aurora launched a autonomous truck service in Texas in May 2025, beginning with a route from Dallas to Houston. The company has added more routes since then, including between Fort Worth and El PasoEl Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Laredo and Dallas.
Kodiak started driverless commercial truck operations in January 2025 in an off-road environment in the remote Permian Basin of West Texas. Kodiak has since expanded into highway operations, including a route between Dallas and Houston.
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