The auto-driving weight card test in California officially entered the public road phase. The California Motor Vehicle Administration (DMV) has granted licences to Aurora Innovation and Kodyak AI to test auto-driving trucks on roads in the state, and Kodjak has been the first to start testing.
The new rules let the weight card test go.
Kodiak stated that the first number of test vehicles was small and was mainly carried out around its offices in Hillscape City. According to the new regulation of DMV, updated this spring and approved on April 28, California, unmanned vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds are no longer subject to public road testing, which also opens the way for subsequent commercial deployments.
According to DMV, both companies have met the licensing requirements, including safety standards, insurance, vehicle registration and safe driver qualifications. Tests at this stage are still clearly limited: vehicles must be staffed by human security personnel and, in principle, must not enter a road below the 25-mile limit except on a direct route between the two locations.
Trade unions bring suit against
Auto-drive trucks into the California highway still face opposition from labour groups. Last week, Teamsters California sued California DMV, claiming that the agency had bypassed the relevant legal requirements and had failed to study and disclose to the public the economic implications of self-driving trucks.
This action was brought before the High Court of Aramida County. The prosecution also alleges that DMV did not adequately assess the security risks that automatic-driving trucks may pose to other road users.
The company's back on its own.
For automatic trucking companies, the significance of the new regulations is that they can finally advance testing and subsequent deployment in the state where they are located at Headquarters. Aurora and Kodyak were both based in California, but previously, because of their state ban, testing and operation were mainly in Texas.
Aurora introduced the auto-driving truck service in Texas in May 2025, initially on the route of Dallas to Houston and then extended to the Vosburg, El Paso, Phoenix and Laredo lines. In January 2025, Kodiak operated a commercialized unmanned truck operation in a non-public road environment that preceded the Western Texas Era Basin, which was subsequently extended to the Dallas-Houston road route.
The granting of a test licence in California meant that auto-driving heavy-card companies had acquired a new test site in one of the most important technology states in the United States, and had further heightened the debate between regulation, employment and road safety.