StoryRegulatory
Kodiak receives a California DMV permit to test autonomous trucks
Kodiak received a heavy-duty Autonomous Vehicle Tester permit from the California DMV, among the first under rules approved on 28 April 2026 that let self-driving heavy trucks test on the state's public roads for the first time. A safety driver must be behind the wheel during testing.
- California's process is phased: testing with a driver, then driverless testing, then driverless commercial deployment.
- California had long been closed to self-driving heavy trucks, a gap for any coast-to-coast network; CEO Don Burnette called this the first phase of scaling coast to coast.
- Kodiak gave no routes or timeline for driverless operation in the state.