On Friday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said that it’s proposing self-driving vehicle tests be allowed on public roads for heavy-duty trucks and other large vehicles, as detailed in a report from Reuters. The news comes as heavy-duty vehicles about 10,001 pounds are currently unable to utilize public self-driving tests in California, as well as others such as Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas.

The proposal would restrict autonomous testing for semi-trucks and other oversized vehicles to specified, pre-selected routes that would be pre-determined to be legal for size, weight, and loading requirements. It would also ban testing these vehicles on city streets, with selected routes primarily including major highways.

The state would also prohibit testing of specific heavy-duty vehicles until further notice under the proposal, including household movers, commercial vehicles used to transport passengers, oversize loads, bulk liquids, or hazardous materials.

A look inside Tesla’s Semi factory

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— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 8, 2025

READ MORE ON SELF-DRIVING FOR HEAVY-DUTY TRUCKS:

The DMV plans to hold a public hearing on the proposal on June 10, after which point it would be allowed to move forward with the agency.

California has been preparing regulations for autonomous trucking since at least last August, when the state submitted an initial draft for such a legal framework.

The state is also evaluating whether light-duty vehicle testing requirements should be updated. Currently, the state requires a permit to test self-driving vehicles utilizing a safety driver, before applying for subsequent phases of driverless testing and deployment permits.

To apply for driverless testing permits, manufacturers are required to conduct testing for a minimum of 50,000 miles, while heavy-duty manufacturers would be required to complete at least 500,000 autonomous testing miles under the proposal. Of them, up to 40,000 of the miles are allowed to be completed outside of California.

The news also follows the Trump administration’s aims to accelerate self-driving deployment this week through the expansion of exemptions for certain reporting requirements.

Although Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) is not currently available for the company’s electric Semi, it’s expected to become available at some point in the future. Tesla has also been spotted testing its FSD on the Semi in and around Giga Nevada, ahead of the company’s plans to launch the software on the Class 8 truck.

Tesla is currently aiming to ramp up production of the Semi, and it’s constructing an expansion to its Gigafactory in Nevada to eventually scale up to volume production.

Tesla receives its first robotaxi permit in California

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On Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved Waymo’s recent request to expand to the Southern California city, though a few counties and other groups in the state have submitted protests. Still, effective on March 1, Waymo can operate driverless ride-hailing operations in Los Angeles, as well as to additional areas of the San Francisco Peninsula.

“CPED approves Waymo’s updated PSP and authorizes expansion of Waymo’s Driverless Deployment service to the areas of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula it has requested,” the agency wrote in the letter. “Waymo may begin fared driverless passenger service operations in the specified areas of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula, effective today.”

According to the letter detailing the approval and statements from the state’s Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division (CPED), the agency received 81 supportive responses from state counties and other organizations, while it received protests from the following five municipalities and groups:

• City of South San Francisco
• County of San Mateo
• Los Angeles Department of Transportation
• San Francisco County Transportation Authority
• San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance

“We’re grateful to the CPUC for this vote of confidence in our operations, which paves the way for the deployment of our commercial Waymo One service in LA and the SF Peninsula,” the company wrote on X on Friday. “This wouldn’t be possible without the ongoing support of our riders, community partners, and policymakers. We can’t wait to bring the benefits of the Waymo Driver to more riders in more places!”

You can see the full CPUC letter approving Waymo’s LA expansion below, along with the proposed expansion areas that have been approved below that.

Credit: Waymo

Credit: Waymo

In Arizona, Waymo recently expanded its driverless testing operations to include highways around Phoenix, expected to make ride times significantly shorter for passengers. In both states, the company operates Jaguar I-Pace vehicles equipped with several sensors to perform driverless rides.

Last month, California Senator Dave Cortese also introduced a bill that could create more barriers for Waymo and other companies trying to expand self-driving operations. The bill, dubbed SB 915, aims to give local municipalities more power in deciding where driverless vehicles can operate in their own communities, which could limit further expansion efforts or approved operation areas.

Waymo has also faced some criticism in downtown San Francisco, where it was approved to operate driverless vehicles for 24 hours a day in August. Protests against the company started last year with pedestrians placing a safety cone on the hood of Waymo vehicles, which would sometimes stop the vehicles from operating. At the time, the group responsible, called Safe Street Rebel, said that it expected such protests to become more commonplace.

Last month, a group of people surrounded a Waymo robotaxi and began vandalizing it, eventually setting the vehicle on fire by lighting fireworks off inside of it. In response to the incident, Waymo said the driverless vehicle “was not transporting any riders and no injuries have been reported,” adding that the company was “working closely with local safety officials to respond to the situation.”

Waymo driverless robotaxi attacked and set on fire in San Francisco

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Cruise and Alphabet-owned Waymo were the only two companies approved to test driverless ride-hailing operations in the city throughout much of last year. In a recent report, the San Francisco Chronicle compiled quarterly data from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), showing that Waymo nearly reached one million driverless miles driven between September and November—while Cruise lost its permit to operate driverless tests following an accident in October.

During the first quarter of 2023, however, only 26,000 driverless miles were driven by the companies combined, illustrating how rapidly the services grew in the city throughout last year.

You can see the Waymo and Cruise data as compiled by San Francisco Chronicle’s Sriharsha Devulapallo below.

Credit: San Francisco Chronicle

Currently, companies don’t have to report the specific number of driverless vehicles they’re operating to state regulators, so it’s unclear exactly how many vehicles Waymo has on San Francisco roads. Waymo and Cruise were approved to begin operating paid robotaxi trips 24 hours a day in August, though Cruise was required to reduce its fleet by 50 percent by the Department of Motor Vehicles in the same month, due to “concerning incidents.”

On October 2, a Cruise robotaxi hit and dragged a pedestrian who had been hit by a human driver, shortly thereafter losing its permit to operate driverless vehicles and facing investigations at both the state and federal levels. The company has since lost two co-founders (including the CEO) and several executives, laid off almost a quarter of its staff, halted production of a self-driving van, and hired legal and tech firms to help review its post-accident response.

The data also comes after Waymo expanded its Phoenix robotaxi services to include highway driving this week, and after the company logged around 81,100 paid, driverless trips in November alone.

“We are steadily working through our waitlist in San Francisco and believe there is still strong demand for the unique service we offer,” said Chris Bonelli, a Waymo spokesperson, in an email. “And when we have capacity to fully open our service — similar to Phoenix — we will be able to welcome additional residents, occasional visitors and tourists.”

While Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta has been talked about as a pathway to a robotaxi service in the future, the company’s testing of the system operates a little differently than Waymo’s. All of Tesla’s vehicles can be equipped with the FSD beta as an add-on for buyers, and testing simply occurs when the system is activated in driver vehicles

In October, Tesla’s FSD beta reached 500 million cumulative miles driven, after having reached 150 million in April. At this point, the system doesn’t offer any driverless or ride-hailing operations, though it’s expected to be able to someday in the future.

Tesla Full Self-Driving presents billions in growth by 2030, firm says

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United Kingdom (UK) Transport Minister Mark Harper noted on Wednesday that legislation surrounding automated vehicles (AVs) is currently making its way through parliament, and he expects there to be a legal framework in place for the emerging technology by the end of next year (via Reuters).

“Probably by as early as 2026 people will start seeing some elements of these cars that have full self-driving capabilities being rolled out,” Harper said in an interview with BBC Radio. “It’ll be gradual…so there’ll be companies rolling it out to be used in certain places.”

The legislation was announced in November, and crucially, the country is looking to hold automakers legally liable for accidents rather than holding drivers accountable. By doing so, country officials have emphasized that the laws are expected to protect consumers and help promote safety in the new industry.

While automated driving has been a polarizing topic in the U.S., Tesla and other companies have set their sights on eventually creating safer roads through the technology. Harper echoed this point, suggesting that the systems could eventually become safer than human drivers.

“Everything I’ve seen about automated vehicles and self driving technologies, it’s very focused on keeping people safe,” Harper added.

Supervised FSD is vastly safer than human driving.

Unsupervised FSD is trending well. Over time, Version 12 (end-to-end neural nets) will far exceed human safety even when unsupervised.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2023

The statements come as market leader Tesla faces some scrutiny around the safety and accuracy of the naming convention of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta, and as it is the only company currently testing the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) at such a broad scale.

Tesla’s FSD beta is available to anyone in North America who purchases the system, and it uses footage from real-time driving behavior to train its neural network, meaning that it continually improves as more miles are driven. Earlier this year, Tesla surpassed 500 million cumulative miles driven on the FSD beta.

Although the FSD beta is currently only available in North America, the potential for expansion into new markets has recently been hinted at by a job listing in Spain, along with apparent testing Tesla has conducted in China, Australia and Europe throughout part of this year.

China also opened a testing road for Level 4 automated driving in October, seemingly coinciding with Tesla’s expected launch of the FSD beta in the country. Tesla’s FSD beta currently operates at a Level 2 of automation, meaning that it still requires drivers to fully monitor driving and to be prepared to take over control of the car at any moment.

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After a self-driving Cruise taxi dragged and pinned a woman in the California city last month, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) immediately suspended the company’s license to operate driverless vehicles. This and other incidents with Cruise’s robotaxis have sparked new investigations and caused the company to re-evaluate its self-driving approach, including plans to cease production on the upcoming driverless van.

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tried to address concerns about the safety of the company’s autonomous vehicles during a company-wide meeting on Monday, from which Forbes obtained audio. During the address, Vogt said that GM will be pausing production of the Origin van, which was expected to ramp up in the coming months.

Vogt told workers, “because a lot of this is in flux, we did make the decision with GM to pause production of the Origin.”

The company was planning to build the Origin van without a steering wheel or pedals, expected to be completely autonomous. Cruise was scheduled to debut the driverless vehicle this year, with some units already having been produced. Vogt also said last year the vehicle would be able to act as a delivery courier when not in use as a robotaxi.

During the meeting, Vogt said that GM had produced hundreds of the Origin van thus far, which he added would be “more than enough for the near-term when we are ready to ramp things back up.”

Vogt also said Cruise is actively cooperating with its regulators and partners during this time, and reports last week showed that the company has hired a third-party legal firm and a technology consultant to aid its internal reviews.

“During this pause we’re going to use our time wisely,” Vogt said.

Just last month, GM CEO Mary Barra said Cruise hoped to have the vehicle on the road in Tokyo as soon as 2026.

“As Cruise continues to push the boundaries of what AV technology can deliver society, safety is always at the forefront,” Barra said during GM’s Q3 earnings call. “And this is something they are continuously improving.”

DMV officials noted that Cruise had “omitted” and “misrepresented” certain details about the October 2 accident with a pedestrian, and Vogt went on to highlight the company’s need to regain the public’s trust during the pause. In addition to facing local scrutiny, Cruise has also garnered additional investigations from federal regulators.

“And so if we want to rebuild trust with these groups, we have got to make sure that we are having those discussions and they hear things from us first and not from the press,” Vogt added during the Monday meeting. “So, candidly because we’ve had some leaks about information coming out of this meeting we have got to be careful what we share from this meeting, or these efforts to rebuild trust could backfire.”

The news of GM’s production pause on the Origin van was later confirmed by GM spokesperson Chaiti Sen, who told Forbes that the automaker would be “finishing production on a small number of pre-commercial vehicles,” before “temporarily” ending production.

“More broadly speaking, we believe autonomous vehicles will transform the way people move around the world, and the Origin is an important part of the AV journey – it’s the first scalable vehicle ever designed specifically for autonomous rides and will make transportation more accessible,” she added in the email.

Cruise is essentially a competitor to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD), which is currently available to users in a beta version. Tesla’s FSD beta, while offering brief periods of hands-free driving on highways, is still meant to be monitored during use at all times, and drivers are expected to be ready to regain control of the car at any point. Additionally, Tesla’s FSD beta system also faces scrutiny from regulators.

Tesla delivering cars with FSD installed, no update required

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The agency opened the probe on December 12, according to NHTSA documents, and is investigating its received complaints regarding “incidents in which Automated Driving System (ADS) equipped vehicles operated by Cruise LLC (Cruise) may engage in inappropriately hard braking or become immobilized while operating in the specified Operational Design Domain (ODD).”

The NHTSA said it has received three reports of ADS initiating hard braking maneuvers “in response to another road user that was quickly approaching from the rear.”

Documents shared by the agency show there have been three crashes/fires, two injury incidents, and two injuries.

Along with reports of hard braking, the NHTSA also said it received complaints regarding Cruise vehicles becoming immobilized:

“With respect to the incidents of vehicle immobilization, NHTSA has been notified of multiple reports involving Cruise ADS equipped vehicles, operating without onboard human supervision, becoming immobilized…These immobilizations may increase the risk to exiting passengers. Further, immobilization may cause other road users to make abrupt or unsafe maneuvers to avoid colliding with the immobilized Cruise vehicle, by, for example, diverting into oncoming lanes of traffic or into bike lanes. The vehicle Investigation: PE 22-014 Open Resume Page 2 of 2 immobilizations may also present a secondary safety risk, by obstructing the paths of emergency response vehicles and thereby delaying their emergency response times.”

The NHTSA is not aware of how many immobilization incidents have occurred but said it has learned about multiple instances of it happening through “discussions with Cruise, media reports, and submissions from local authorities, such as the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA).”

According to CNBC, Cruise believes the crashes can be attributed to vehicles “predicting and responding to the behavior of aggressive or erratic road actors.” These actions were taken to minimize the severity of an accident and potentially decrease the risk of injury.

Cruise secured the first-ever permit to charge for self-driving car rides in San Francisco in June. By September, GM had already shipped the first software updates to Cruise vehicles after a crash three months earlier left two injured.

GM Cruise probe by Joey Klender on Scribd

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