Court Rejects Driverless Warning Waiver Lawsuit as FMCSA Grants Five-Year Extension

Court Rejects Challenge as FMCSA Grants Five-Year Warning-Beacon Exemption for Driverless Trucks

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has approved a five-year exemption allowing Aurora Operations and other participating autonomous trucking companies to use cab-mounted warning beacons instead of traditional roadside warning devices.

The decision follows a legal challenge from Illinois cargo van operator Kostas Giannoulias, who argued that FMCSA improperly issued a series of temporary waivers while considering a longer-term exemption. On Oct. 5, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Giannoulias’ requests for an immediate administrative stay, a stay pending review and expedited proceedings.

The court did not issue a detailed explanation for the decision. By denying the stay requests, however, the court left the waivers in place while FMCSA proceeded with the broader exemption.

FMCSA announced the five-year exemption in a Federal Register notice published Oct. 9. The exemption is effective Oct. 7, 2026, and remains in effect through Oct. 7, 2031, unless the agency revokes it sooner for safety-related or other reasons.

Replacing warning triangles and flares

Federal regulations generally require a commercial motor vehicle stopped on a highway or shoulder to be marked with warning devices, including emergency triangles or fusees, commonly known as flares. A human driver is expected to leave the cab and place those devices around the truck after a breakdown, crash or other stop that requires them.

A driverless truck has no one inside the vehicle to perform that task. Aurora therefore sought permission to use warning beacons mounted on the truck’s cab. FMCSA previously rejected an Aurora request for an industry-wide exemption because the proposal was too broad, but the agency indicated that narrower, company-specific requests could be considered.

The exemption approved in October is available to Aurora and other autonomous motor carriers that opt in. Kodiak Robotics, Waabi Logistics and Stack AV have signed onto the exemption, according to FMCSA. The agency said Kodiak had deployed 20 driverless trucks as of March 10, 2026, while Waabi and Stack had not yet deployed any.

The exemption covers more than the placement of warning devices. It also provides relief from requirements concerning steady-burning lamps and the types and number of warning devices required under existing rules.

Conditions placed on participating carriers

FMCSA said it believes the alternative warning system will provide an equal or greater level of safety than the standard requirements when a driverless truck is stopped in a situation requiring roadside warnings.

Under the exemption, any motor carrier other than Aurora must notify FMCSA in writing before beginning operations covered by the exemption. Participating carriers also must submit an annual report describing beacon malfunctions, power issues and other instances in which the system did not operate as required.

The agency added technical requirements that were not included in Aurora’s earlier request. The beacons must meet SAE J595 photometric performance standards, comply with specified mounting locations and have a redundant power source to reduce the risk of a single power failure disabling the warning system.

The beacons must activate as soon as possible, and no later than five minutes after the truck stops on the traveled portion or shoulder of a highway for a reason other than a necessary traffic stop. They must continue flashing until the truck resumes movement or is recovered.

The exemption also prohibits operations that would require a hazardous materials endorsement, a hazardous materials and tanker combination endorsement, a passenger endorsement or a school bus endorsement if a human driver were operating the vehicle.

Truckers raise safety and accountability concerns

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association formally opposed the use of warning beacons in comments submitted to FMCSA’s regulatory docket.

OOIDA President and CEO Todd Spencer called the exemption a “corporate carve-out” and said relaxing safety requirements for autonomous vehicles could set a troubling precedent. He also questioned whether the agency was giving sufficient attention to transparency, accountability and the effect of autonomous trucking on highway users and professional drivers.

“Exceptions to safety regulations must be based on sound evidence,” Spencer said, “not the needs of Silicon Valley technocrats and their investors.”

Giannoulias made a related procedural argument in court, claiming that FMCSA had not followed the proper process when it granted several three-month waivers beginning last year. FMCSA countered that the temporary waivers were lawful and challenged the operator’s claim that allowing them to continue would cause the immediate, irreparable harm required for a court-ordered stay.

Part of a broader regulatory transition

The warning-device exemption is narrow and applies only to qualifying autonomous carriers that meet its conditions. It does not eliminate the other federal requirements that apply to commercial motor vehicles or establish a blanket exemption for every autonomous truck operator.

It does show how regulators are adapting rules written around the assumption that a human driver is present in the cab. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Automated Vehicles 3.0 guidance stated that future federal motor carrier regulations would not necessarily assume that the vehicle operator must be a human physically present in the vehicle.

For professional drivers, the immediate issue is practical: how an unmanned truck is marked after a roadside incident. FMCSA’s action authorizes a technology-based substitute while retaining operating limits, reporting requirements and technical standards. The court’s refusal to halt the earlier waivers allows that approach to continue as the agency oversees driverless truck operations through the five-year exemption.