The latest edition of the Automotive AI Newsletter examines Hyundai Motor Group’s enterprise-wide adoption of AI across research, manufacturing and customer service, Tier IV’s development of an open-source AI semiconductor for Level 4 autonomous driving, and Ford’s rollout of a vehicle-specific AI assistant to its customer apps.
Elsewhere, the edition covers AI-powered dealership tools from Matador AI and Stellantis, WeRide’s widening losses, PlusAI’s progress toward commercial deployment of factory-built autonomous trucks, and Sony and TSMC’s planned US$6.3bn semiconductor facility targeting next-generation image sensors.
Aug 18, 2026 · via automotiveworld.com
Komatsu's FrontRunner Autonomous Haulage System was born at a copper mine in 2008 — CODELCO's Gabriela Mistral operation in Chile, the world's first commercial AHS deployment. For most of the next 18 years, the technology found its deepest commercial penetration in iron ore. Now, with a fleet of 19 Komatsu 930E ultra-class haul trucks operating driverlessly at Vale Base Metals' Salobo Copper Complex in Pará, Brazil, autonomous haulage is returning to the commodity that created it — this time at a scale that the energy-transition copper supply crunch demands. The Salobo go-live, reported by International Mining on August 17, 2026, did not arrive in isolation. The week before, Vale Base Metals announced it is proceeding with a Coarse Particle Flotation expansion at the Salobo III plant — a $215 million project expected to add 6 million tonnes of annual ore processing capacity and up to approximately 30,000 tonnes of additional copper production per year. And since July 2026, Salobo's track dozers have surpassed 5,000 operating hours under Hexagon's TeleOp remote-control system, keeping operators away from the active mining face. Three technology layers — autonomous haulage, remote dozer operation, and next-generation flotation — are now operating simultaneously at a single copper complex, forming something genuinely new in the industry: an integrated copper mine automation stack. Why Copper Mines Are Going Autonomous Now The copper supply picture is the fundamental driver. The International Energy Agency's Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026, published in July, projects that current mine-project pipelines will leave a supply gap of approximately 25 percent by 2035 — slightly narrowed from a 30 percent shortfall projected in the 2025 edition, but still structurally significant. Demand is being driven by electric vehicles, power grid modernization, and AI data centers, which IEA projections estimate could require 250 to 550 kilotonnes of copper
Aug 18, 2026 · via techtimes.com
Dive Brief: - Kodiak AI has received approval from California to test its autonomous trucks on state roadways with drivers onboard, the company announced Aug. 14. The company told Trucking Dive via email that this allows such operations to start immediately. - The announcement comes days after CEO and founder Don Burnette said in the company’s Q2 earnings call with analysts that the state’s regulatory framework “creates a clear path to commercial driverless deployment in California for both intrastate and interstate operations.” - Now that Kodiak has approval from California, Burnette said the permit allows the company to begin the first phase of scaling coast-to-coast autonomous trucking. He added, “California’s comprehensive autonomous vehicle regulations are a major unlock for freight innovation.” Dive Insight: Kodiak AI has been working toward launching long-haul driverless operations since late last year. The company had been awaiting the chance to deploy its technology in California since the state announced new rules allowing autonomous trucks to operate on state roads. Daniel Goff, VP of external affairs for Kodiak AI, said in an email to Trucking Dive that the company faces no restrictions on where and how it can test in Calfornia, though it must follow the state’s regulations as written. Before Kodiak AI and other AV firms can progress to applying for a commerical deployment permit in California, they must complete 500,000 miles for heavy-duty trucks during two sperate phases for a total of 1 million miles. California regulators also said OEMs must prepare a strucutred safety case demonstrating the safety of vehicle hardware, software and operations. Burnette told analysts the launch of Kodiak’s Gen7 platform, which has 50% more computing power than its previous generation self-driving technology and will be installed in its new generation of trucks, will greatly improve safety. The updated technology provides
Aug 18, 2026 · via truckingdive.com
Einride is putting 500 Tesla Semis on US roads, the largest commitment to Tesla’s electric truck that anyone has made public. That will takes the Swedish freight company from roughly 250 deployed electric trucks to about 750. First deliveries start next month, with the rest arriving in phases over 24 months. Einride (Nasdaq: ENRD) announced the deal Tuesday alongside its first-half results. Five states are in scope: California, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, and Georgia. Amazon is the named customer, and every truck gets managed through Saga, Einride’s software platform for routing and charging windows. No Tesla Semi commitment announced so far is this big. In May, WattEV ordered 370 Tesla Semis for California port drayage, which held the record until today. Einride clears it by 130 trucks. “This deployment is yet another proof point that we can execute at the scale our customers demand,” Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli said. Tesla’s Director of Semi, Dan Priestley, stuck to the standard pitch: “EV heavy trucks provide lower costs per mile from fuel savings, reduced maintenance, and better uptime over diesel trucks.” $145 million in trucks, $77 million in the bank Here’s the thing. Tesla is quoting roughly $290,000 for the 500-mile Long Range Semi and about $260,000 for the Standard Range version, per the pricing we got when the first Semi rolled off the high-volume production line in April. Five hundred trucks puts the hardware bill somewhere between $130 million and $145 million. Einride closed June with SEK 748 million in cash. That’s about $77 million. The press release handles the gap in one clause: the deployment is “fully financed with third party financing solutions.” No lender named, no terms given, nothing saying whether the trucks land on Einride’s balance sheet at all. That’s not automatically a red flag. Asset financing on
Aug 18, 2026 · via electrek.co
China’s largest pure electric mining truck officially rolled off the assembly line last week. The ZL230E (formerly LK350E) is a 350-ton gross weight electric haul truck developed by Zijin Longking for continuous open-pit mining operations. With a 230-ton payload capacity and a 125-cubic-meter cargo box, this massive vehicle combines high-capacity haulage with a zero-emission design built to handle the most demanding mine environments. Through a partnership with Australian autonomous mining developer EACON, the ZL230E fuses heavy electric hardware with autonomous intelligence. The vehicle boosts transport efficiency, slashes operating costs, and advances sustainable green mining practices through its low energy consumption, high reliability, and easy maintenance. “This new vehicle is a powerful tool tailor-made for high-intensity continuous operations in ultra-large open-pit mines,” said Huang Wei, president of Zijinlongjing. Powerful battery pack Large open-pit mining operations rank among the most carbon-intensive industrial activities, mainly because heavy-tonnage haul trucks consume massive quantities of diesel. That’s why battery electric trucks are important. Underneath its high-rigidity frame lies a multi-axle, centrally distributed independent drive architecture powered by dual 800 kW motors. The powertrain matches energy output in real time. It powers up steep mountain inclines without losing momentum. More from Transportation See All Batteries make or break heavy machinery. Reportedly, the ZL230E houses a colossal 1,400 kWh battery pack. Its long-life, superchargeable battery system rapidly charges to 90 percent in just 25 minutes, minimizing downtime and maximizing overall operational efficiency. Built to handle high-intensity mining conditions, the ZL230E features a patented high-rigidity frame, dual-control chassis design, intelligent energy management, and redundant braking and steering systems. The truck integrates EACON’s cloud-based dispatch, perception, and decision-making technology stack. The result is a fully driverless, zero-emission haulage machine designed for China’s harsh open-pit operations. This integrated technology framework provides comprehensive safety protection across the entire vehicle for stable
Aug 18, 2026 · via interestingengineering.com
What's the deal? DefendEye, a developer of fully autonomous drone systems, announced in August 2026 that it had closed an investment round led by NovaCapital. The amount was not disclosed. The syndicate also includes ff Venture Capital, Hard2beat, Sunfish Partners and In-Q-Tel.
Why now? The capital will support DefendEye's production scale-up and international growth. Its flagship Overwatch Drone is designed to provide autonomous aerial intelligence for first responders, with manufacturing operations in Krakow, Poland and Hallandale Beach, Florida. CEO and co-founder James Buchheim said the investment will help bring the system to market.
Read more: PR Newswire
Aug 18, 2026 · via app.dealroom.co
LGMG ultra-fast charging battery mining trucks: haulage and power notes for engineers Reviewed by Tom Sullivan First reported on International Mining – News 30 Second Briefing LGMG has unveiled an ultra-fast charging battery mining truck solution aimed at China’s ‘Dual Carbon’ strategy, targeting haul fleets where low charging efficiency and costly fixed infrastructure have stalled pure-electric adoption. The system is designed for high-power, short-duration charging cycles compatible with large rigid and articulated trucks, reducing idle time compared with conventional overnight or multi-hour charging. For mine operators, the approach enables higher utilisation of existing pits and haul roads without extensive substation upgrades, while cutting diesel-related ventilation and emissions constraints in deep or enclosed operations. Technical Brief - LGMG frames the system as aligning with China’s national ‘Dual Carbon’ emissions and neutrality targets. Our Take In our database, LGMG’s ultra-fast charging truck sits alongside its RTE156 autonomous battery-electric truck collaboration with Boonray (July 2026), signalling that LGMG is building a full-stack electric–autonomous haulage offering for Chinese surface mines rather than just standalone vehicles. The Xinjiang deployment of EACON’s ORCASTRA system on mixed-energy fleets that already include LGMG battery trucks (August 2026) suggests this new ultra-fast charging platform is likely to be evaluated for compatibility with third-party autonomous and fleet management systems from the outset. Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team. Related Articles Related Industries & Products Mining Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management. Construction Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management. CMRR-io Streamline coal mine roof stability assessments with our cloud-based CMRR software featuring automated calculations, multi-scenario analysis, and collaborative workflows. HYDROGEO-io Comprehensive hydrogeological testing platform for managing, analysing, and
Aug 18, 2026 · via geomechanics.io
On this second consecutive self-steering episode of Quick Charge, we take a look at how Tesla increased its national self-driving Robotaxi fleet by half with the stroke of a pen, and see how the company’s autonomous deployments compare to the rest of the world’s. We’ve also got some news from autonomous freight and logistics experts Einride, who have Level 4 autonomous heavy trucks operating in Europe and, more recently, Ohio – but they’re just scratching the surface, because China has literally THOUSANDS of fully autonomous ultra heavy haul trucks operating in mines, today. You can check those out in the source articles linked, below, then let us know what you think how the hype stacks up against reality in the comments. Source Links Today’s episode is sponsored by GM Energy Pass, a new feature that simplifies your drive, from daily commutes to epic road trips. By bringing charging options together in one place, we make it easy for you to find charging stations and plug in your EV. Plus, you can access large public charging networks—bringing you peace of mind on every drive. Learn more at GM Energy. Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage podcast series. Got news? Let us know! Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show If you’re considering going solar, it’s always
Aug 18, 2026 · via electrek.co
The corporate value of an autonomous driving technology company depends less on how far it has traveled and more on its ability to replicate safety with the driver absent and convert this into a paid service. Since Level 4 requires vehicles to drive without driver intervention within designated operating conditions and zones, both technological maturity and operational systems must be verified. While an A or A technical evaluation served as the initial hurdle to confirming technological capabilities, the preliminary listing review is a stage where business sustainability and revenue expansion potential are also assessed. RideFlux, which launched unmanned driving operations in Sangam, Seoul, and paid transportation services using 25-ton trucks, has now been brought before the stock exchange for review. RideFlux, a company specializing in autonomous driving AI software, submitted a preliminary application for listing on the KOSDAQ to the Korea Exchange on August 14. The joint lead managers are Korea Investment & Securities and Woori Investment & Securities, and the company aims to list in the second half of this year. RideFlux passed the A-A technology evaluation last May, receiving an A grade from both specialized evaluation agencies designated by the Korea Exchange. During the evaluation process, actual autonomous driving test drives were conducted on congested roads, including construction zones, illegally parked areas, and unsignalized intersections. RideFlux, established in 2018, has independently developed the software required for Level 4 autonomous driving, ranging from technology for recognizing the vehicle's surroundings and determining location to driving path determination, vehicle control, precision mapping, and remote operation. It is structured to apply a single core architecture called 'RideFlux Driver™' to various vehicle types, including passenger cars, buses, and heavy trucks. The cumulative investment raised is 88.2 billion won. The company is pursuing a strategy to reduce development costs and commercialization time by extending
Aug 18, 2026 · via venturesquare.net
Autonomous Electric Freight Trucks Scaling Up In Europe Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles. There’s so much attention on robotaxis and so many companies trying to lead this sector, but there seems to be relatively little news on autonomous long-distance trucking. That seems somewhat surprising since one would think autonomous long-distance trucking would be easier than unpredictable urban taxi service, and might also be significantly more lucrative. Anyway, that’s not to say no one is attempting to crack this nut. For example, in Europe, we’ve got Einride. Last week, Einride and DAF Trucks partnered on a joint initiative to integrate Einride’s autonomous driving system, which is called Einride Driver, into DAF’s premium vehicle platform. Autonomous trucking at scale? We’ll see. “The collaboration marks a significant step toward the large-scale commercialization of SAE Level 4 autonomous electric freight transportation in response to industry challenges such as driver shortages and rising operating costs,” the companies note. “Level 4 refers to a high level of driving automation in which the vehicle can independently perform repetitive driving tasks under predefined conditions, without any need for human intervention. In this way, available drivers can focus on activities in logistic operations where their expertise and judgement add the most value.” (Until someone tries to have AI replace that latter part too….) Here’s how the collaboration is working: “As a first step, Einride and DAF, together with experts from the Dutch independent research institute for applied science and innovation, TNO, will collaborate on defining and testing the integration of Einride’s autonomous drive system within DAF’s ‘International Truck of the Year 2026′ electric truck platform. This
Aug 17, 2026 · via cleantechnica.com
The rise of automation, AI, and electric trucks can fundamentally change the freight transportation industry in the United States, leading to a revolution in transport fuel demand. Various vehicle and technology companies and U.S. cities and states have launched in recent years automation trucking pilot programs. In barge transportation on the Mississippi River, AI-assisted co-pilot projects are already being used to make transportation more efficient. The increase in efficiency, via technological, autonomous, or AI-enabled systems, could optimize freight efficiency, including by reducing fuel per-unit use and inefficiencies in supply chains, Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire argues. Vehicle automation is a promising fuel-reducing strategy. Moreover, truck platooning, the linking of trucks in a convoy to travel closer together by using connectivity technology and automated driving support systems, is a “likely contender to reduce energy requirements for the heavy-duty vehicle sector,” says the transport and mobility research team at the National Laboratory of the Rockies. Platooning allows multiple vehicles to travel closer together, accelerate or brake simultaneously, and reduce aerodynamic drag to create significant energy or fuel savings, NLR notes. Self-driving trucks in Texas and AI-assisted navigation on the Mississippi River are making inroads in boosting the efficiency of freight transportation in the United States. Aurora Innovation, a self-driving freight developer, last year launched a commercial self-driving trucking service in Texas, starting regular driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston. This year, Aurora Innovation and its manufacturing partner Roush launched their second-generation driverless trucks. Aurora plans to deploy the new fleet across its commercial network, which currently encompasses 10 driverless routes throughout the U.S. Sun Belt, to serve additional customers. Related: Libya Power Crisis Explodes as Grid Fails Again “By working with a world-class manufacturing partner like Roush, we can meet our customer demand and continue to make the movement of goods safer
Aug 17, 2026 · via oilprice.com
Aurora Innovation (AUR) is down 5.7% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement. ([ir.aurora.tech](https://ir.aurora.tech/news-events/press-releases/detail/147/aurora-announces-second-quarter-2026-results)) Analysis: The most likely explanation is that investors are weighing solid operating and regulatory progress against Aurora’s still-heavy cash consumption and recent share issuance. This could be because the market is treating the latest California permit news and fleet expansion targets as positive but not enough to offset dilution and financing concerns in the near term. ([qr.dmv.ca.gov](https://qr.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-industry-services/autonomous-vehicles/autonomous-vehicle-testing-permit-holders/)) Details: Sources: Aurora Innovation Investor Relations, SEC, California DMV, California Public Utilities Commission Disclaimer: This price movement analysis was generated with the help of AI. Please double-check the information provided for mistakes. $AUR Insider Trading Activity $AUR insiders have traded $AUR stock on the open market 23 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 1 have been purchases and 22 have been sales. Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $AUR stock by insiders over the last 6 months: - TECHNOLOGIES, INC UBER sold 67,500,000 shares for an estimated $479,250,000 - REID HOFFMAN has made 0 purchases and 9 sales selling 7,048,487 shares for an estimated $54,288,482. - MICHELANGELO VOLPI has made 0 purchases and 12 sales selling 3,548,071 shares for an estimated $24,938,021. - DAVID M. WEHNER purchased 82,500 shares for an estimated $498,300 To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard. You can access data on insider stock transactions through the Quiver Quantitative API insider transaction endpoint. $AUR Hedge Fund Activity We have seen 266 institutional investors add shares of $AUR stock to their portfolio, and 185 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter. Here are some of the largest recent moves: - T. ROWE PRICE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, INC. added 113,793,139 shares (+61.3%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $776,069,207 - CAPITAL
Aug 17, 2026 · via quiverquant.com
California has issued its first permits to test autonomous trucks on public roads, to Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, with Kodiak already running vehicles around Mountain View. Teamsters California filed suit on 5 August asking a court to repeal the rules that made the permits possible. Self-driving trucks are testing on California public roads for the first time. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles has issued permits to Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, and Kodiak has already put a handful of trucks to work, mostly around its Mountain View office. It follows a rule change on 28 April that lifted California’s ban on testing autonomous vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds, a restriction that had kept both companies out of their home state for years. The permits are narrow. A safety driver has to stay behind the wheel, and testing is barred on roads posted at 25mph or below unless the truck is taking a direct route between destinations. The rules underneath them are already being challenged. Teamsters California filed a writ petition in Alameda Superior Court on 5 August, days before the permits were granted, asking a judge to repeal the regulations outright. The union’s case is procedural rather than technological. It argues the DMV sidestepped requirements to study and publish the economic impact of allowing driverless heavy trucks, and failed to properly weigh the risk to other road users. “Such a critical decision with life-and-death consequences must involve public input and transparency,” said Peter Finn, a Teamsters California co-chair, “that is why Teamsters California is taking the DMV to court.” The union is not relying on the courts alone. Co-chair Victor Mineros said it would keep fighting “in the courtroom, at the ballot box, and into the next administration,” and gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has committed to reversing
Aug 17, 2026 · via thenextweb.com
Is Telo Trucks The Real Deal? I Interviewed The Founders To Find Out Telo says its mini electric truck will offer 350 miles of range, four doors, and the same bed length as a four-door Toyota Tacoma. Telo trucks has made some big promises. Its upcoming MT1 electric mini truck is supposed to deliver up to 350 miles of range, 8,000 pounds of towing capacity, 500 horsepower, ultra-fast 800V charging, and a five-foot truck bed in a footprint no longer than a two-door Mini Cooper. But as America's graveyard of EV startups grows, is Telo prepared to go the distance? I interviewed two of the company's founders to find out. Both CEO Jason Marks and CTO Forrest North say that the company's first product is almost ready to launch. But both are also honest that high-volume production isn't the immediate goal. Telo says the MT1 will tow up to 8,000 pounds, which is more than any Toyota Tacoma or Ford Ranger can pull. It'll also have better payload capacity than existing midsize trucks and—with the help of a folding mid-gate—room to fit 8-foot-long items. "We're not looking at going to 100,000 units in year one," Marks told me. "We're looking to get to 500 units on year one, 5,000 units on year two, and only once we establish that can we really go mass market and scale." Marks likens the approach to Tesla, which launched with the low-volume Roadster before building the more mass-market Model S. The company made fewer than 2,500 Roadsters between 2008 and 2012. Telo wants to run the same playbook, which should come as no surprise given that Tesla co-founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning are investors in Telo. Gallery: Telo MT1 subcompact electric truck The company says production of the MT1 will start this year,
Aug 17, 2026 · via insideevs.com
NODA AI wins $100M Pentagon contract to scale autonomous mission command across the Joint Force
● 11 hours ago
NODA AI announced on 17 August 2026 that the US Department of War has awarded it a $100 million contract to scale the company's autonomous mission command software across the Joint Force.
The award builds directly on the $10 million contract NODA secured in July 2026 to develop MAESTRO (Multi-Domain Autonomous Enhanced System for Tactical Reasoning and Orchestration), the orchestration software behind the Pentagon's LUCAS (Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System) one-way attack drone programme. The new, ten-times-larger award moves the New York- and Austin-based firm's hardware-agnostic autonomy platform from a single programme into broad, multi-domain deployment across the US military's services.
NODA's software acts as a vendor-neutral orchestration layer that lets drones, ground robots and sensors from different manufacturers keep executing a commander's intent under contested and jammed conditions, positioning the company as a connective-tissue infrastructure supplier for software-defined defence.
Read more: The Defence Blog
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Aug 17, 2026 · via app.dealroom.co
China Tests New Way To Automate Trucking: One Driver Leading A Convoy A single human sits in a lead cab on the Beijing–Tianjin–Tanggu Expressway. Behind them, heavy trucks follow in tight formation — empty cabs, no safety operators, Level 4 autonomy handling every steering input via vehicle-to-vehicle communication. This isn't a test track scenario. It's a permitted, cross-provincial operation. China's "1+N" platooning model isn't waiting for the perfect fully-driverless solution. It built a working one around regulations that already exist. The architecture is straightforward. The lead truck carries a human driver who handles navigation, compliance, and edge-case judgment. Trailing trucks mirror its every move autonomously. Deployments target controlled, high-frequency environments first — smart ports, mining haul roads, fixed expressway freight corridors — where trip patterns are predictable enough that Level 4 systems can actually prove themselves. Who's Running It and Where Three companies hold the serious approvals, spanning ports, expressways, and mining corridors across multiple Chinese provinces. Pony.ai became the first company approved for cross-provincial robotruck platooning in China, running convoys on the Jingjintang Expressway connecting Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei. Its 2025 permits now allow trailing trucks to operate completely driver-out — a meaningful step beyond earlier requirements mandating safety personnel in every cab. SANY paired its 4th-generation electric semi with Pony.ai technology in a "1+4" configuration aimed specifically at smart-port drayage operations, where repetitive short-haul movements make autonomous following trucks particularly effective. KargoBot, backed by DiDi, holds L4 convoy approvals across four regions: - Beijing - Tianjin - Inner Mongolia - Hebei These include routes along the Beijing–Taipei Expressway and Daxing Airport Expressway. In Ordos, 100 Level 4 electric trucks running KargoBot systems have been delivered and are operating in convoy demonstration mode. The system, as SANY's rollout framing puts it, "pairs autonomy with human experience" — the lead
Aug 17, 2026 · via tech.yahoo.com
Russia's KAMAZ has logged more than 14.5 million kilometers (about 9 million miles) of autonomous freight operation on federal highways without a single reported accident — and on August 15, the company confirmed it is now developing passenger buses equipped with automated driving systems. That track record is extraordinary. It is also, by the structure of the engineering problem, only partially relevant to what comes next. Highway autonomy and urban passenger autonomy are not the same discipline, and every autonomous vehicle program in the world that has tried to translate one into the other has discovered they require fundamentally different architectures, sensor configurations, and safety frameworks. KAMAZ is now standing at exactly that frontier. The August 15 announcement came in direct response to a broader Russian government push: Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin proposed extending Russia's Experimental Legal Regime — the regulatory sandbox that has allowed KAMAZ trucks to operate driverlessly on public highways since 2023 — to include minibuses and buses. The government subsequently drafted amendments that would formally bring passenger vehicles of this class within the ELR framework. Pilot regions under discussion include Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, and Russia's Far East — each of which already hosts some element of KAMAZ's highway freight network or existing autonomous vehicle experimentation. Highway Autonomy Is Not Urban Autonomy The distinction matters, and the article's most important fact is the one KAMAZ's announcement leaves implicit. Under the SAE International J3016 standard — the global taxonomy for driving automation — every autonomous system is defined by its Operational Design Domain (ODD): the specific set of conditions, environments, and traffic types the system is designed to handle. A highway ODD and an urban bus ODD are, technically speaking, different certifications for different systems, even if the underlying vehicle is the same. On Russia's M-11 Neva
Aug 17, 2026 · via techtimes.com
Self-Driving Trucks Are Already Hitting The Road In California The California DMV has issued the first permits that allow companies to test heavy autonomous vehicles on the road. - California has lifted its ban on heavy autonomous vehicles, and the first self-driving trucks have already hit the road. - Two companies have received permits from the California DMV to test their autonomous vehicle technology on public state roads. - For now, the rules allow public testing with a safety driver behind the steering wheel. After plenty of driverless taxis have made their way onto its streets, California has officially opened the door to another category of self-driving vehicles, and the first companies are wasting no time in taking advantage of the new rules. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has issued the first permits that allow companies to test autonomous trucks on public roads, and Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI are the first to receive them. Both startups are developing self-driving technologies for big rigs, and Kodiak said it has already started testing in California with a handful of test trucks, mostly around its office in Mountain View. Earlier this year, the California DMV updated its rules regarding self-driving vehicle testing, lifting a ban on autonomous vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds. The regulator also set a path for companies to test and potentially deploy self-driving heavy vehicles, as reported by TechCrunch. Aurora and Kodiak applied for testing permits this spring, after California approved the new rules on April 28. Both companies met the DMV’s criteria for testing, including safety, insurance, vehicle registration, and safety driver qualification. All this being said, testing AVs over 10,000 lbs still requires a safety driver behind the steering wheel in California. The rules also ban companies from testing on roads where the speed limit
Aug 17, 2026 · via insideevs.com
The Department of Motor Vehicles has issued the first ever permit for heavy-duty autonomous vehicles to be tested on California's roads. On Thursday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued a permit to Kodiak AI, Inc. to begin testing heavy-duty autonomous vehicles on California's roads for the first time. Until now, classification did not exist for — and therefore did not allow — vehicles heavier than 10,001 pounds. Yahoo! News compares Kodiak's first testing phase to a leaner's permit: "What the DMV actually issued is a drivered permit. Every Kodiak tractor operating under it carries a human being in the left seat, belted in, hands near the wheel, doing exactly the job California spent a decade insisting somebody had to do," writes John Lloyd. "Kodiak's permit is the first rung of a three-rung ladder: drivered testing, then driverless testing, then driverless commercial deployment." But Lloyd also emphasized how quickly the phase might pass. "Before a heavy-duty developer can run driverless freight commercially in California, it needs roughly 500,000 miles logged in the safety-driver phase and another 500,000 in the driverless phase, with about 200,000 of the total accumulated inside California... [but] a single long-haul tractor covers 500,000 miles in maybe five years of hard duty. A test fleet of 20 trucks running 500 miles a day clears the same distance in about seven weeks." Lloyd's article gives a very thorough overview and analysis of Kodiak's history, the evolving regulations of heavy-duty autonomous vehicles, and what it all means. Have a read, below. FULL STORY: California Just Handed Kodiak a Learner's Permit for Driverless Semis Planetizen Federal Action Tracker A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America. Lost lines: Amtrak's discontinued and defunct named trains The Abraham Lincoln, the Cape Codder and El
Aug 17, 2026 · via planetizen.com
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Aug 17, 2026 · via live.euronext.com