Self-driving trucks hit California highways — and Teamsters are already suing

California's Department of Motor Vehicles has granted permits to Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI to test self-driving trucks on public roads, and Kodiak has already begun operations. The company said it is starting with a small fleet of test trucks running primarily around its Mountain View office.

Both companies applied for the permits this spring under updated rules that the DMV approved on April 28. The new regulations lifted a previous ban on testing driverless vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds on public roads and established a formal regulatory path for companies to test and eventually deploy autonomous heavy-duty trucks across the state.

According to the DMV, Kodiak and Aurora met all permitting criteria, including safety standards, insurance coverage, vehicle registration, safety driver qualifications and other requirements. The permits come with conditions: a human safety operator must remain behind the wheel at all times, and the trucks are barred from operating on roads with posted speed limits of 25 miles per hour or less, unless they are on a direct route between destinations.

Despite these restrictions, the prospect of autonomous trucks on California's highways continues to draw strong opposition. Last week, Teamsters California filed a lawsuit against the state DMV, alleging that the agency bypassed legal requirements to study and publicly disclose the potential economic impact of allowing self-driving trucks on public roads. The suit, filed in the Superior Court of Alameda County, argues that the DMV overstepped its authority by approving the testing rules without proper environmental and economic review.

The union has long warned that autonomous trucking could eliminate thousands of driving jobs in the state. The legal challenge is the latest in a series of efforts by labor groups to slow the rollout of driverless freight technology, even as companies like Aurora and Kodiak push forward with commercial deployments in other states. Both companies have emphasized that their systems are designed to work with safety operators for now and that autonomous trucks could help address driver shortages and improve road safety.

The DMV has not publicly commented on the lawsuit. The case adds another layer of uncertainty to the future of autonomous freight in California, a state that has been cautious about allowing heavy driverless vehicles on its roads even as it embraces robotaxis in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.