Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI have secured permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test autonomous truck technology on public roads. Kodiak has already initiated tests using a small group of trucks operating near its Mountain View office.
Both companies applied for these credentials this spring. They utilized updated regulations approved by the California DMV on April 28. Those rules lifted a prior ban preventing driverless vehicles over 10,000 pounds from public road testing. The framework establishes a regulatory path for testing and eventual deployment of heavy-duty autonomous vehicles.
The DMV confirmed that Kodiak and Aurora met all permitting criteria. These standards included safety, insurance, vehicle registration, and safety driver qualifications. The permits mandate a human safety operator behind the wheel. They also ban operation on roads with speed limits of 25 miles per hour or lower, except on direct routes between locations.
Despite these limits, the presence of autonomous trucks on state highways draws strong opposition. Last week, Teamsters California filed a lawsuit against the DMV in the Superior Court of Alameda County. The union alleges the agency bypassed laws requiring public disclosure of potential economic impacts. The lawsuit also claims the DMV ignored safety risks for motorists.
The new rules enable developers to test and deploy technology in their home state. Both Aurora and Kodiak are based in California. Previous testing focused on Texas due to California's historic ban on heavy-duty autonomous trucks.
Aurora launched a commercial self-driving truck service in Texas during May 2025 on a Dallas-to-Houston route. The firm subsequently added routes connecting Fort Worth and El Paso, El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Laredo and Dallas. Meanwhile, Kodiak started commercial driverless operations in January 2025 within the Permian Basin in West Texas before moving to on-highway routes like Dallas-to-Houston.
The California DMV will oversee ongoing testing activities as the companies operate under their newly issued permits.
