Outside Texas, California has recently generated much of the latest autonomous truck news, even though the trucks themselves are not operating there at commercial scale.

The reason is California’s driverless truck rulemaking process. Until recently, the state had not allowed autonomous truck testing and has been drafting rules since 2021. That changed when California released its long-awaited framework.

The framework has now drawn the attention of organized labor, including the California Teamsters, because it sets the first state pathway for heavy autonomous trucks to move from testing into commercial freight service.

It took effect April 28 and requires 1 million miles of testing before a driverless truck can haul freight commercially. The Teamsters responded by suing on Aug. 5, 2026, arguing that the state moved too fast.

The union’s complaint in Alameda County Superior Court does not challenge the substance of the driverless truck rules. Instead, it challenges the process that produced them. Teamsters California says the Department of Motor Vehicles routed the rules through an expedited track reserved for minor updates carrying less than $50 million in first-year costs or benefits. In the union’s view, the agency thereby “circumvented laws requiring the agency to study and publicly disclose the economic impacts.”

Nothing in the filing prevents the DMV from continuing to process applications, and the permit queue has continued to move. Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI hold drivered testing permits, and the agency’s roster of 28 permit holders includes Gatik and PlusAI. For those companies, the immediate constraint is time rather than litigation, because the California process still requires staged mileage benchmarks before commercial deployment can begin.

PlusAI published its own readiness scorecard on Aug. 10, reporting 93.4% safety case readiness, 99.8% autonomous miles, and 85.2% remote assistance-free trips. The company is targeting 100% safety case readiness and more than 90% remote assistance-free trips before it removes drivers from the cab commercially in 2027.

That commercial rollout will not begin in California. PlusAI is operating a commercial pilot in Texas with International Motors and Ryder on a daily 600-mile route along the I-35 corridor between Ryder locations in Laredo and Temple. Laredo was the busiest U.S. port for transborder freight in May 2026 at $35.3 billion for the month, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The million-mile threshold in California’s rules

“In 2021 when I was the chief counsel at FMCSA, I watched and engaged with California DMV officials in what was a very intentional and thoughtful process,” said Earl Adams Jr., vice president of public policy and regulatory affairs at PlusAI, in an interview with FreightWaves. “They decided they’re not going to move fast … consistent with the state’s approach to regulating any type of technology, any type of innovation, and they were going to do it their way.”

The result is a three-stage permit process. A company must first test with a safety driver for 500,000 miles, including 100,000 miles in California. It can then move to driver-out testing only after showing the state evidence of safe operation for an additional 500,000 driver-out miles. Only after that can a company apply for commercial deployment.

The same rulemaking also lifted California’s prohibition on operating autonomous vehicles rated above 10,001 pounds, which is what opened heavy freight to the framework.

“You can’t get any more intentional and focused than the way that California laid out its regulations,” Adams said.

Teamsters argue the state overlooked key risks

The Teamsters see the same record differently. The union points to vehicles that can be up to 16 times heavier than the robotaxis the state already permits. It argues the DMV did not adequately weigh the risk to motorists sharing lanes with trucks still in testing, and it cites polling showing that four in five California voters want a human safety operator aboard. The union also disputes the agency’s finding that autonomous heavy vehicles would eliminate no jobs.

“It’s not a surprise that the Teamsters filed their lawsuit. Anytime you have a transformational technology, there’s going to be some resistance and that’s what we have here,” Adams said. “It’s going to take time for people and for others to get comfortable with the technology.”

PlusAI said it intends to continue operating and watch how California responds to the litigation.

PlusAI will be applying for a driver-in permit that begins the state’s testing sequence, Adams said.

“From our perspective, we’re going to follow California’s lead” Adams said. “Lawsuits, all we can do is just watch it, monitor it, and then react and respond based upon what California, what the state does.”

Texas established the model earlier

Texas created a workable permit regime years earlier and with far less litigation. Senate Bill 2807 gave the Texas DMV authority over autonomous vehicle operations effective Sept. 1, 2025. Final administrative rules were issued Feb. 27, and the authorization requirement became enforceable May 28. Applicants must certify that the Department of Public Safety has a plan explaining how firefighters, police and medics should interact with the vehicle.

Adams said the value of the Texas system is that operators can review the requirements in advance.

“There’s certainty and there’s clarity in the rules, and that’s what you need as we’re trying to plan out our deployment strategy,” he said.

The Texas Triangle and the corridor running north from the border also provide the dense, repeatable, high-value miles used to build a safety case.

PlusAI is following the same model overseas. A Level 4 program with IVECO and Spanish logistics operator Sesé covers a 184-mile freight corridor between Madrid and Zaragoza. A separate Level 4 partnership covers Japan with T2, the operator that ran the country’s first commercial Level 2 autonomous trunk-line service in July 2025.

Federal lawmakers weigh a national framework

The patchwork of state rules is the issue the House tried to address in May. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the BUILD America 250 Act by a 61-2 vote. The five-year, $580 billion reauthorization includes the first federal framework for autonomous commercial vehicles.

It directs the Department of Transportation to issue a performance-based safety standard and opens the door for Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rulemaking on threshold items such as warning triangles. It also amends the preemption statute so the agency can strike down state rules that lack safety benefits or burden interstate commerce.

“That’s getting rid of that patchwork of individual state rules which we believe will not only promote safety but it will effectively allow for national deployment in a safe and consistent way, because there’d be one set of rules,” Adams said. “Right now … we got Texas over here, we got California over here, we got Florida here, Nevada, etc.”

The lame-duck window

The Senate has not advanced the bill and is in recess. Jurisdiction over parts of the measure is split across other House committees, and the midterm calendar has taken up the floor time needed for a reauthorization of this size.

Adams said he expects the autonomous vehicle title to survive even if House control changes.

“I’m an eternal optimist and I think in DC you have to be an eternal optimist otherwise you’d head to the Potomac,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens, but … even if nothing happens until the new Congress, I still am optimistic that the proposal as passed by the committee, that the vast majority of it will be resubmitted again.”

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