Kodiak Receives Californian Test Permit for Robot-Trucks

Just under four months after California passed a law allowing the testing of autonomous commercial vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms), Mountain View-based Kodiak Robotics became the first company to receive a license to test robo-trucks on public roads in California.

Most testing of autonomous trucks has so far taken place in the U.S. state of Texas, where companies such as Aurora, Gatik, Kodiak, Plus.AI, and Thordrive already have entire fleets in trial operation—some of which are even driverless. By signing the bill into law, California Governor Gavin Newsom has overruled the concerns of the Teamsters union, which had demanded that at least one truck driver be present on board every driverless truck.

There are still a few conditions attached to the Kodiak license; for example, there must be a test pilot on board who can take the helm and assume control at any time. Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette commented,

This permit allows us to begin the first phase of scaling autonomous trucking coast-to-coast, while ensuring appropriate safety oversight from California regulators.

At the same time, it was also announced that Andreas Wendel, the long-time CTO originally from Austria, had left the company at the end of July after eight years.

This article was also published in German.