TechCrunch Mobility: A roadblock clears for self-driving trucks

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. I’m back from a sojourn through New Hampshire’s White Mountains — a few days of respite before Disrupt 2026, TechCrunch’s annual tech conference in San Francisco. Now, after a few days immersed in fall colors, I am ready for the action. And there is gonna be a lot of it. I want to see you all there, so here is a 30% discount on tickets to Disrupt with code mobility30. For more info on the show, scroll down. Self-driving truck companies Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI received a federal exemption this week that removes a massive barrier to commercialization.

Under federal regulations, if a traditional big rig runs into trouble, the human driver must pull over, activate the hazard lights, and then physically place reflective warning triangles on the road within 10 minutes to alert other road users. But if a mechanical problem forces a self-driving truck to pull over, there’s no human driver to deploy those warning devices. It was a big enough hurdle that Aurora took federal safety regulators to court over the requirement. After the court denied its request for an exemption, the company escalated the fight to the District of Columbia Court