Deployments
Aurora and Kodiak run driverless freight in Texas; Pony.ai runs it at a Shenzhen port
Aurora has logged more than 500,000 driverless miles on four Texas lanes and targets 200 trucks by year end. Kodiak runs 35 customer-owned driverless trucks in the Permian Basin. Pony.ai runs Gen-4 driverless trucks at Mawan Port in Shenzhen and tests platoons with empty follow cabs near Beijing; Chinese leaders target mid-2028 for empty-cab highway freight.
| Deployment | Developer / operator | Where | Scale | Autonomy | Status | Controls declared |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurora Driver | Aurora Innovation / Aurora for Charger, Value Truck and Detmar | Dallas-Houston, Dallas-Laredo, Fort Worth-Phoenix, Permian lanes in Texas | 500,000+ driverless miles; 20 to 25 trucks expected (Sep 2026) | Driverless on validated lanes | Commercial, scaling | Cab beacons; runs only in validated ODD; no hazmat |
| Kodiak Driver at Atlas Energy | Kodiak AI / Atlas Energy | Permian Basin, Texas and New Mexico | 35 driverless trucks (Jun 2026) | Driverless | Commercial | Readiness measure at 91% before long-haul launch |
| Pony.ai Robotruck | Pony.ai / Pony.ai with China Merchants Port and Sinotrans | Mawan Port, Shenzhen; Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei platoon tests | Count not disclosed (Aug 2026) | Driverless at port; platoons with empty follow cabs | Commercial at port; platoons in testing | Lead-truck platoon design |
Recent events
- Bot Auto ran a 231-mile Houston to Dallas load on April 29, 2026 with no safety driver, remote operator or observer.
- Aurora set a target of 30,000 driverless trucks by 2030 at its September 23, 2026 investor day.
- Volvo Autonomous Solutions plans driverless Volvo VNL trucks in Q1 2027.
- Inceptio reports 700 million cumulative km; its CEO and Pony.ai's CEO both target mid-2028 for empty-cab trucks in China.
- PlusAI targets a driverless launch in 2027.
Attack surface
Five of ten attack-surface dimensions rate very significant or critical
No dimension rates critical. Ratings use five levels, from limited to critical, and cover the paths an attacker or a failure can take into the agent.
| Dimension | Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Physical access | Significant | Trucks at terminals, yards, rest stops, and inspection stations are accessible |
| Identity and authentication | Significant | Fleet operator credentials, ELD systems, shipper and broker integration accounts, customs and inspection authorities all represent compromise paths |
| Command and control channels | Very significant | Fleet management dispatch, remote operations channels, V2V protocols for platoons |
| Perception and sensors | Very significant | Cameras, lidar, radar, GNSS, IMU |
| Connectivity surface | Significant | Cellular connectivity across rural and interstate corridors with variable coverage |
| OTA and update pipeline | Very significant | Firmware, autonomy stack, behavioral policies, and operational parameters flow through OTA |
| Data capture and retention | Significant | Continuous video, ELD telematics, cargo manifest data, route history |
| Integrations and permissions | Significant | Shipper systems, broker platforms, customs and weigh-station systems, fuel and charging networks, maintenance providers |
| Behavioral and policy boundary | Very significant | Operational design domain limits, geofences, speed and route policies, hours-of-service compliance |
| Multi-agent coordination | Very significant for platoons | Platoon operation depends on V2V coordination |
Incidents
No registry incident involves autonomous trucks yet
The 137AI Incident Registry logs an incident when an agent's failure or misuse caused harm or a regulator acted, and public sources name the developer, the failed control and how it was found. No autonomous trucks case meets that bar yet. Candidates go on the review list in the registry methodology.
Rules
The first federal driverless-truck rule is an exemption, not a standard
| Rule | Jurisdiction | What it requires | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMCSA warning-device exemption (49 CFR 392.22) | US federal | Cab beacons on within five minutes of a stop; ODD only; no hazmat; crash report within five days | Granted Oct 7, 2026 for five years |
| California DMV AV regulations | California | Lifts the ban on heavy-duty AVs; 500,000 test miles per phase | Adopted Apr 28, 2026 |
| FMCSA ADS motor-carrier rulemaking | US federal | Operating rules for ADS-equipped commercial vehicles | On the Unified Agenda, no date |
| Draft Road Traffic Safety Law revision | China | Manufacturer liable for violations while the autonomous function is active | First reading Aug 2026 |
| EU Regulation 2022/1426 | EU | Fixed-route goods vehicles in small series | In force |
Status colors: green in force, blue voluntary standard or framework, amber adopted and phasing in, gray draft or pending, red withdrawn.
Record
Page Record
- Agent class
- Physical
- Datasets
- ai_deployments.csv (3 rows for this page); ai_attack_surface.csv (10 rows); ai_incidents.csv (0 linked)
- Key sources
- Kodiak results
Aurora investor day
FMCSA exemption (FreightWaves) - Source notes
- Aurora Driver: truck count is a projection
- Last verified
- October 2026