US Drivers’ Union Sues California DMV About Autonomous Truck Regulation

After California closed a previous regulatory loophole regarding autonomous vehicles and began allowing autonomous trucks to be tested on public roads starting in April 2026, Kodiak became the first company to receive such a test license just under two weeks ago.

After Governor Gavin Newsom overruled the opposition of the Teamsters union and signed the bill into law, the Teamsters have now filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit argues that self-driving trucks threaten more than 200,000 jobs in the trucking industry, and it calls on the court to prohibit their deployment.

The drivers’ union accuses the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the governor of using an expedited regulatory process—intended for minor changes—and failing to conduct a comprehensive study of the economic impact. They also accuse the DMV of wrongly concluding that the regulations would not result in job losses. They also claim that autonomous trucks pose an even greater safety risk than smaller self-driving cars. However, human error remains one of the main causes of truck accidents.

Dem stehen allerdings Unfallzahlen aus der Praxis gegenüber, die von einer geringeren Rate von Kollisionen mit autonomen Fahrzeugen berichten. Insgesamt könnte die Einführung autonomer Lkw den Verbrauchern bis 2035 Einsparungen in Höhe von 9 Milliarden Dollar (7,71 Milliarden Euro) bringen.

However, this is countered by real-world accident data, which shows a lower rate of collisions involving autonomous vehicles. Overall, the introduction of autonomous trucks could save consumers $9 billion (7.71 billion euros) by 2035.

This article was also published in German.