Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing self-driving trucks, have been granted permission by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to test their self-driving technology on public roads. Kodiak says it is starting with a small number of test trucks in California, primarily operating around its Mountain View office area. Both companies applied for testing permits this spring, complying with new regulations approved by California's DMV – the state's autonomous vehicle regulatory agency. These regulations (passed on April 28) lifted the ban on public road testing of self-driving vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds (approximately 4.5 tons), and opened a legal path for companies to test and eventually deploy heavy-duty autonomous trucks. According to information from the DMV, both Kodiak and Aurora meet the agency's licensing criteria, including requirements for safety, insurance, vehicle registration, qualifications of safety supervisor drivers, and other regulations. The test permit requires a safety supervisor to be behind the wheel; furthermore, companies are prohibited from operating vehicles on roads with speed limits of 25 mph (approximately 40 km/h) or less, unless the vehicle is traveling on a "direct route" between destinations. Despite these limitations, the prospect of autonomous trucks operating on California highways continues to face mixed opinions. Last week, the Teamsters California organization filed a lawsuit against the state's DMV, alleging that the agency circumvented the law by failing to conduct research and publicly disclose the potential economic impacts of allowing autonomous trucks to operate on public roads. The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, also alleges that the DMV failed to adequately consider the safety risks to motorists. For developers of self-driving cars, these new regulations allow them to test and eventually deploy the technology locally where they are headquartered. Both Aurora and Kodiak are based in California, but until recently, they