California Autonomous Vehicle Rules Open Roads to Heavy Trucks

A rewrite that loosens and tightens at once

California has spent more than ten years as both the main testing ground for self-driving cars and one of the few large markets that kept autonomous big rigs off its roads. That changed on April 28, 2026. The Department of Motor Vehicles adopted a broad rewrite of its autonomous vehicle (AV) rules that covers both light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. The DMV presented the package as tougher safety, oversight and enforcement that also opens the state to larger AVs used in freight and transit.1 The agency calls these the most comprehensive AV regulations in the country and says they came out of a long public comment and review process.1

The package does two things that pull in different directions, and that is why it matters. It ends the state's ban on autonomous vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, which opens the door to AV freight.1 It also gives police, local emergency officials and the DMV itself new ways to discipline the companies that run these vehicles.12 Taken together, the rulebook is less about whether the technology should exist and more about how much accountability operators owe while it grows.

What the rules actually require

The enforcement measures are the most practical change for the public. Police can now issue a Notice of AV Noncompliance to the manufacturer when one of its vehicles commits a moving violation.1 A compliance guide written for California lawyers says this process began July 1, 2026, using form OL 325. Companies must send the notice to the DMV within 72 hours, or within 24 hours if the officer flags it for priority review.4 The same guide notes that state law says a notice does not by itself create a presumption that the vehicle is unsafe.4 That detail matters: the notice is a record and a signal to regulators, not a traffic ticket in the usual sense.

The rules also set requirements for emergency scenes, where robotaxis have caused friction in the past. Manufacturers must provide a two-way communication link to first responders with a 30-second response time and give access to manual override systems. They must update their first-responder interaction plans every year.1 Local emergency officials can issue electronic geofencing directives, and fleets must leave the marked area within two minutes. Any AV that ignores a "do not enter" zone risks having its permit restricted or suspended.13

The changes go further. The DMV can now limit a manufacturer's fleet size, operating locations, speeds and the weather it may drive in when public safety requires it.1 Remote drivers and remote assistants now face licensing, permitting and training standards.1 Data reporting has been updated to track system failures, vehicle immobilizations, hard-braking events and vehicle miles traveled.1 Monthly data reports to the DMV began on August 26, 2026, according to the compliance guide.4

The second major opening is for transit. Public agencies and universities can now run medium-duty AV passenger vehicles weighing up to 14,001 pounds.16 This change has drawn far less attention than the trucks, but it gives cities and campuses a route to automated shuttles that did not exist before.

The million-mile ladder

For heavy trucks, getting from permit to commercial service is a long process. Every manufacturer starts with testing that has a safety driver aboard, moves to driverless testing, and only then can apply to deploy. Each phase requires 50,000 miles for light-duty vehicles or 500,000 miles for heavy-duty ones, along with a structured safety case covering hardware, software and operations.1 For trucks, that adds up to at least one million autonomous miles before a driverless commercial truck can operate.6 One analysis lists what the safety case must cover: functional safety, safety of the intended function, AI safety, cybersecurity and operational safety.6

One detail changes how demanding that ladder really is: much of the mileage can be driven outside California. Tech Times reports that up to 400,000 of the first 500,000 supervised miles can come from other states.10 A Yahoo Autos analysis puts the total at up to 800,000 of the million miles, which implies the same share applies to the driverless phase.6 The two accounts fit together. That analysis concludes the structure favors companies that have already done their learning in Texas and Arizona, making California "less of a proving ground than a final exam."6 That reading looks right. The mileage rule is strict on paper but is designed to credit operators who already have years of freight history in states with lighter rules.

Other limits make clear that California treats these vehicles as trucks first. Autonomous heavy trucks must stop at California Highway Patrol weigh stations and follow every applicable state and federal commercial vehicle rule.15 They are kept off local roads posted at 25 mph or below unless the road is a direct route between hubs, distribution centers or fueling stations. In practice, that means the state is permitting freeway freight between depots.6 Household moving and oversize loads are excluded.4 One analysis points out a gap: the $5 million insurance, bond or self-insurance requirement is the same for a compact robotaxi and an 80,000-pound combination truck.6

First trucks on the road

The industry moved quickly. Aurora and Kodiak AI, both based in California but long unable to test heavy autonomous vehicles there, applied in the spring and received permits on August 13, 2026.10 Tech Times also lists Gatik and Plus.ai as permit holders under the expanded program.10 On September 22, Kodiak began a pilot with DTL Transport, hauling perishable freight about 225 miles between Fresno and a Los Angeles distribution center, mostly on State Route 99 and Interstate 5.1112 Kodiak CEO Don Burnette called the state's rules a "major unlock" for freight in the company's home state.11

Coverage of these runs sometimes blurs what the permits allow. Every heavy-truck permit issued so far is for supervised testing with a human behind the wheel.410 As of early October, the DMV's list of driverless testing permits had not been updated since April 3, before heavy-duty permits existed.4 Calling these "autonomous deliveries" is accurate in a technical sense, but nobody in California is yet running an empty-cab semi.

Labor's counterattack

The rules are not settled law yet. On August 5, Teamsters California filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court asking that the regulations be repealed.46 The union's argument is about procedure, not engineering. It says the DMV used a regulatory pathway meant for rules with less than $50 million in economic impact and avoided the full assessment that bigger rules require.610 It points to the DMV's claim that the rules would eliminate no jobs, in a state the union estimates has about 200,000 semi-truck drivers.1013 Teamsters co-chair Peter Finn argued that the risks he attributes to robotaxis grow with trucks up to 16 times heavier moving at highway speeds.10

The libertarian Advocates for Self-Government takes the opposite view. It notes that most states already allow autonomous trucks, that California's regime is still by far the strictest, and that the state's Administrative Procedure Act bars using impact analyses to "reassess statutory policy."8 The group describes the suit as the latest of the union's repeated failed attempts to ban driverless trucks by statute.8 That history is real: Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 316 in 2023, which would have required human operators on heavy AVs, and vetoed a similar bill, AB 2286, the next year.6 Tech Times argues those vetoes are exactly why the fight has moved to procedural claims about the DMV's authority.10

Politics adds a second threat. Tech Times reports that Xavier Becerra, the leading Democratic candidate in November's governor's race, has committed to reversing the truck rules. A new administration could start a fresh rulemaking without waiting for a court.10 If either path succeeds before operators reach driverless status, the supervised miles they are logging now may count for nothing.10

Legislators add more human layers

Lawmakers are adding requirements on top of the DMV's. Newsom signed SB 1246 on September 30. Starting July 1, 2028, remote drivers must be located in the United States and hold a valid California license of the right class.5 Manufacturers must send local incident technicians after certain crashes, and the DMV will publish quarterly incident data by company.4 The DMV must also set response-time standards that can vary by setting, from urban to remote.5

The Association for Advancing Automation summed up the direction well: California is starting to regulate the whole operating system around the vehicle, not just the vehicle. Under this approach, "driverless" does not mean "humanless."5 Our reading is that this is the story's main lesson. The April rules widen the market, but they also make a company's fleet operations, remote staff and emergency response as much a condition of its permit as its software. Whether that holds up now depends less on the engineers and more on a Superior Court judge and California voters.