Who is allowed to drive without a driver
California issues three autonomous-vehicle permits, and they are not degrees of the same thing. One lets a company try anywhere in the state with somebody ready to grab the wheel. One lets it run a car with nobody aboard who can take over. One lets it carry the public. The gap between the first and the third is the clearest public measure of how few companies have actually arrived.
Twenty-eight may try. Three may carry somebody.
Holders of each permit. A company appears in every tier it holds, so the bars are nested rather than exclusive: everyone in the narrow tiers also holds the wide one.
A permit to test with a safety driver is close to a formality: 28 companies hold one, most of them suppliers and manufacturers who run nothing resembling a service. The permit that matters is the second, because it is the first point at which the state accepts a car with nobody able to take over, and it is granted street by street rather than statewide. Only 6 companies have it.
3 may carry a member of the public. Everything this site measures about passenger service in California comes from that handful.
The streets, the hours and the weather each one is confined to
For the permits that allow a car to run with nobody able to intervene, the state publishes the operational design domain. It is the most specific public statement anywhere of what an autonomous vehicle is actually permitted to do.
Too large for the state’s own table. The domain is published on a page of its own, which is itself a measure of how much more ground this operator covers than the rest.
Too large for the state’s own table. The domain is published on a page of its own, which is itself a measure of how much more ground this operator covers than the rest.
Every permit on the register
All three tiers, including the long tail of suppliers and manufacturers who hold a test permit and operate nothing.
| Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America | Carry the public | · California freeways and highways in: - Bay Area - Los Angeles - Sacramento - San Diego · Interstate 5 · Interstate 15 connecting Los Angeles area to Nevada | Daytime | · Sufficient weather conditons Excludes : Flooded highways, heavy smoke, heavy dust, and heavy fog, snowstorms · Speed 40 mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nuro | Carry the public | · San Mateo County · Santa Clara County | All times of day and night | · Fair weather conditions: - dry or wet pavement/asphalt - light rain - light to moderate fog · Speed 25-35 mph |
| Waymo | Carry the public | Published separately | ||
| AIMOTIVE INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| AUDI OF AMERICA | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Aurora | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| AutoMo USA LLC | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| BLACK SESAME TECHNOLOGIES INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| GATIK AI INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| HELM.AI INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| IMAGRY INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| KODIAK AI | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| May Mobility | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| MERCEDES-BENZ RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT NORTH AMERICA | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| MOIA America | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Motional | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| NISSAN | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Nuro | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| NVIDIA CORPORATION | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| OHMIO INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| PLUSAI, INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Pony.ai | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| QUALCOMM TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| TELENAV, INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Tensor Auto | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Tesla | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| VUERON TECHNOLOGY USA, INC. | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Waymo | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| WeRide | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| WOVEN BY TOYOTA | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| Zoox | Safety driver aboard | Any public road in California | ||
| AutoMo USA LLC | No safety driver | San Francisco - Downtown - Potrero Hill - Presidio Heights - Richmond - Sunset Sunnyvale - North of El Camino Real (California State Route 82) | · All times of day and night (San Francisco) · Weekdays and weekends, 9 AM - 9 PM (Sunnyvale) | · Includes clear weather, but also light inclement weather conditions, including light rain and fog · Speed 35 MPH (San Francisco) · Speed 45 MPH(Sunnyvale) |
| Nuro | No safety driver | Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties | All times of day and night | · Dry or wet pavement or asphalt, including light rain, and light to moderate fog. · Speed 45 MPH |
| Tensor Auto | No safety driver | San Jose | All times of day and night | · Mild and clear conditions, as well as light precipitation · Speed 45 MPH |
| Waymo | No safety driver | Published separately | ||
| WeRide | No safety driver | · San Jose · Santa Clara | Daytime | · Clear or cloudy weather but also light inclement weather conditions, including light rain · Speed 50 MPH |
| Zoox | No safety driver | Foster City San Francisco | All times of day and night | · Clear conditions, mist, drizzle and moderate rain and light fog, haze, or smoke · Speed 45 MPH (Foster City) · Speed 45 MPH (San Francisco) |
| No rows match this filter. | ||||
What a permit is, and is not
How to read a licence.
A permit is permission, not activity. A company can hold the widest licence in the state and run nothing, and most of the 28 holders of the testing permit do exactly that. Read the register as who is allowed, and the fleet census or the California record for who actually drove.
This is California only. Texas requires registration rather than a permit and publishes a vehicle count instead of a domain; Arizona and Nevada publish neither in a form anyone can read. So the domain detail here has no equivalent anywhere else, which is worth remembering before treating it as a national picture.
The state maintains this by hand, and each tier carries its own date rather than a common one. A permit revoked between updates still shows here until the page is next edited.