Autonomous Trucks Are Taking the Road—Is Your Business Ready?

The Autonomous Trucks Are Coming for the Lane, Not Necessarily for Your Business

Autonomous trucks are operating on U.S. highways in 2026, but the industry has not reached the wholesale transformation many predictions once suggested. The technology is advancing through limited commercial deployments, while federal rules, state laws, labor opposition and unresolved liability questions continue to determine where and how driverless trucks can operate.

For professional drivers, the most important distinction is between a specific lane and the broader trucking business. Autonomous systems are being developed first for repeatable highway routes, particularly long-haul segments that are difficult to staff. That does not mean every part of a trucking operation can be automated at the same pace.

Federal policy is moving toward a national framework

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s July 2026 regulatory agenda included 15 rulemakings focused on autonomous vehicles. Along with the proposed BUILD America 250 Act, the agenda represents the strongest concentration of federal regulatory support the autonomous trucking industry has received.

The proposed legislation would establish a national framework for autonomous vehicles and could reduce the state-by-state differences that currently complicate deployment. Federal preemption remains a central issue, however, because state rules govern many aspects of testing and commercial operation.

Labor groups are challenging that direction. Teamsters officials in California filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Motor Vehicles in August, arguing that California’s autonomous vehicle rules could eventually threaten the jobs of more than 200,000 employee truck drivers, along with a similar number of independent drivers.

The lawsuit creates additional legal risk for companies planning state-level expansion. Even if federal legislation advances, court challenges and differing state requirements could delay deployment schedules.

Commercial operations are expanding

Aurora Innovation launched its second-generation driverless trucks in July. Its manufacturing partner, Roush, is targeting an annual production rate of 1,000 trucks by the end of the year. Aurora began commercial driverless operations on the Dallas-Houston corridor in April 2025 and has since expanded to 10 driverless routes in the Sun Belt.

The company reported more than 250,000 driverless miles by the end of January and nearly 440,000 by the end of June. It has said it expects to have more than 200 driverless trucks operating by the end of 2026.

The network now includes a roughly 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix, a distance that exceeds what a single driver could normally cover under hours-of-service limits. Aurora’s partnership with Volvo has also expanded beyond the original Dallas-Houston corridor. The Dallas-Oklahoma City lane is already operating commercially.

Volvo Group has outlined additional milestones. According to a Forbes analysis published July 14, the company plans to begin fully driverless operations in Texas during the first quarter of 2027, operate more than 300 autonomous trucks on U.S. highways by the end of 2027, and move toward industrial-scale deployment beginning in 2028.

Other companies are following different operating models. Kodiak Robotics has installed its system in trucks owned by customers. Atlas Energy Solutions had 20 driverless Kodiak-powered trucks operating in the Permian Basin at the end of 2025 and 35 by the end of June 2026, with more than 40,000 cumulative hours of paid driverless operations. Kodiak is targeting a driverless long-haul launch between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2026.

PepsiCo formalized a multiyear autonomous freight partnership with Gatik in June. The agreement covers driverless trucks operating across three states in PepsiCo’s supply chain. Gatik focuses on middle-mile transportation using driverless medium-duty trucks.

The technology remains limited to specific work

Most current deployments share a similar pattern: terminal-to-terminal highway movements on validated routes, generally in favorable operating conditions. Many still include a human safety operator.

One company says its autonomous trucks are completing an I-45 run without the safety observer taking control and plans to remove the observer by the end of 2026. Volvo and Waabi have also begun hauling freight for Warp’s less-than-truckload network on the Dallas-Houston corridor with an observer still in the cab. Waabi says driverless runs using Volvo’s purpose-built truck are scheduled to begin next year.

Those operations do not cover the full range of work performed by a professional driver. Backing into difficult docks, moving equipment in crowded yards, securing or tarping freight, handling breakdowns, responding to reefer problems and dealing with changing customer instructions all require capabilities beyond highway steering.

Local delivery, complex urban routes, specialized freight handling, flatbed and heavy-haul work, hazmat transportation and final-mile service remain heavily dependent on human judgment and physical involvement. Autonomous systems are being used primarily where the route is repeatable and the highway portion can be separated from pickup and delivery work.

Job displacement has not yet occurred at scale

As of mid-2026, the industry had not experienced large-scale job displacement from autonomous trucks. Most commercial deployments retained human safety operators, and the number of autonomous vehicles remained small compared with the existing trucking workforce.

Richard Steiner, Gatik’s vice president of government relations and public affairs, described autonomous trucks as “a relative drop in the bucket” compared with the broader industry during a panel at the Autonomous Vehicle Policy Forum at CES 2026.

Driver concerns remain significant. A March poll from Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety found that 85% of respondents were concerned about sharing the road with autonomous trucks. A January survey of Illinois voters found that 78% opposed allowing driverless heavy trucks in the state.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has opposed the SELF DRIVE Act of 2026, citing concerns about company self-certification, independent federal verification and qualifications for remote operators overseeing commercial vehicles.

The likely near-term change is to the network

The current operating model suggests that autonomous technology will first remove the driver from selected highway segments rather than eliminate every job connected to a shipment. Freight still has to reach the autonomous terminal, move through yards and transfer points, and complete the final delivery.

That creates continuing demand for drayage, hostling, recovery and roadside service, trailer pools, maintenance, sensor calibration and fleet monitoring. The model used by Kodiak, in which the customer owns the truck while purchasing autonomous technology as a service, also leaves open the possibility that carriers could eventually own and operate autonomous equipment rather than simply compete with technology companies.

The transition remains constrained by federal rules written for human drivers, fragmented state laws, insurance and liability questions, infrastructure requirements and the limitations of current systems. Autonomous trucks are moving into commercial service, but the evidence so far points to a gradual restructuring of trucking lanes and responsibilities—not an immediate replacement of the industry’s workforce.