August 18, 2026 - Kodiak Gets California Permit for Automated Truck Testing

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for August 18, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry. 

While numerous companies developing automated long-haul trucks, including Kodiak and Plus AI, are based in California, until recently none of them have been allowed to actually operate these vehicles in their home state. California regulations have limited automated driving to light-duty vehicles in part due to pressure from trucking unions. As a result, most testing of these trucks, along with early commercial deployments, has taken place in other southern states, with Texas being a main hub along with Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Both Kodiak and Aurora automated trucks are now doing commercial driverless operations in Texas. 

However, those California regulations have changed, and Kodiak has become the first company to receive a permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles to test its trucks on public roads in the state. Kodiak has a somewhat unique approach with its ADS technology. Most other companies, including Plus, Aurora, and Torc Robotics, have partnerships with truck manufacturers to develop systems that will be integrated and installed on trucks at the factory, with support coming from the manufacturer. Kodiak has developed a system that integrates camera, radar, and lidar sensors into the side mirror housings so they can be easily installed on any truck. Telemetry has published a white paper on the benefits of partnering with OEMs for manufacturing and service support that can be found at TelemetryAgency.com.  

Kodiak obtained its permit on August 13, 2026, and will soon begin testing in California with a safety operator behind the wheel. As with light-duty vehicles, California has a phased approach that goes from safety driver, to driverless testing. As ADS developers demonstrate the efficacy of their systems, they can then apply for commercial testing permits with and then without safety operators. In addition to on-road testing in Texas, Kodiak has also delivered several dozen trucks to Atlas Energy that are being used to transport fracking sand in oil fields without drivers. 

Thanks for listening.