Every truck driver knows the drill: if you stop on the shoulder, the flashers go on and three warning devices go out behind and ahead of the truck within 10 minutes. A driverless truck has nobody to walk them out. For almost a year the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has solved that problem with a waiver that lets autonomous trucks use flashing beacons mounted on the cab instead. Now an Illinois freight driver has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit to put that waiver on hold, and a judge has ordered FMCSA to answer by September 21.
The waiver: three months at a time, for a year
The order under challenge is dated July 9, 2026 and signed by FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs. It frees Aurora Operations from the warning device placement rule in 49 CFR 392.22(b), the steady-burning lamp requirement in 393.25(e) and the rule on the type and number of warning devices in 393.95(f), so that its Level 4 trucks can rely on cab-mounted warning beacons. It runs from July 10 through October 9, 2026. According to the court filing, it is the fourth consecutive waiver of its kind: the first took effect on October 10, 2025, and renewals were signed on January 8, April 8 and July 9.
Two features of the order are at the center of the case. First, it is not limited to Aurora. The waiver "also permits any other motor carrier to operate under the waiver, provided that it first notifies FMCSA in writing." The notice goes by email, with a certification under penalty of perjury that the carrier has the beacons and will follow the conditions, and the carrier may start once FMCSA acknowledges the email "or the expiration of one business day after delivery, whichever occurs sooner." The July letter names two carriers that have joined: Kodiak Robotics and Waabi Logistics. It says FMCSA "may publish" a list of participants. Second, the terms state that, absent a violation, a carrier's own safety notification or an FMCSA finding of a safety deficiency, "this waiver will be reissued."
The waiver does come with limits. Operations must occur "primarily" on the Interstate Highway System. Loads that would require a tank, hazmat, combined tank-and-hazmat, doubles/triples, passenger or school bus endorsement if a human were driving are excluded, and so are passengers and hazardous materials. The beacons must meet the SAE J595 standard and have redundant power, and carriers must report crashes, beacon activations and malfunctions to the agency.
Who is suing, and what he argues
The petitioner is Kostas Giannoulias, an Illinois resident who is representing himself. In a sworn declaration he describes himself as an interstate freight driver who runs a 2024 Ram ProMaster cargo van in the spot market, often at night, and says he made at least six trips in July and August involving Dallas, Houston, Austin, Laredo and El Paso. According to his declaration, those routes overlap the corridors where Aurora has publicly announced driverless operations, including Dallas to Houston, Fort Worth to El Paso and Dallas to Laredo. His stated worry is coming up at night on "a stopped tractor-trailer whose rearward warning consists only of cab-mounted beacons rather than the spatially separated warning devices ordinarily required."
His legal argument is about what kind of permission this is. Federal law gives FMCSA three tools. A waiver covers "a person," for a nonemergency "unique" event, for no more than three months, and needs no public notice. An exemption can cover a class of carriers for up to five years, but requires a Federal Register notice and public comment. A pilot program, meant for testing new safety approaches, requires a published data plan and a report to Congress. The filing argues that four back-to-back waivers, open to any qualifying carrier by email, with promised renewal and a stated purpose to "gather critical data," amount to an exemption or a pilot program without the public process Congress attached to those. "Repetition cannot remain unprecedented merely because FMCSA issues a new letter every ninety days," it says.
There is history behind that point. In December 2024 FMCSA denied a five-year exemption sought by Waymo and Aurora, finding the two studies they submitted did not show beacons to be as safe as triangles. Aurora sued over that denial in the D.C. Circuit in January 2025. In its July 2026 letter the agency says the waiver is narrower than what it rejected, because it is mostly limited to interstates, sets technical specifications and adds reporting, and that the same two studies "reasonably support" a finding that motorists respond to the beacons at a similar rate. Meanwhile Aurora applied again for a five-year exemption in the spring. That request went through public comment, which closed May 15 and drew about 400 comments, and FMCSA has not announced a decision.
Where the case stands
The petition for review and an emergency motion for a stay were filed September 8 as case No. 26-2838. On September 10, Circuit Judge Nancy Maldonado ordered FMCSA to respond to the stay motion by September 21. Two government attorneys entered appearances for the agency on September 15, and the agency's record is due October 19. The first hurdle is whether Giannoulias can be in this court at all: the statute allows review by a "party aggrieved," and he did not take part in the agency's decision, because, as his filing puts it, there was no notice, docket or hearing to take part in. He says he is filing a parallel case in federal district court in the Northern District of Illinois in case the appeals court sends him there. The court has not ruled on anything yet, and a filing by a self-represented driver faces long odds. But the October 9 expiration means the question of a fifth waiver arrives in less than three weeks either way.
Same shoulder, two sets of rules
Nothing in this waiver changes what a human driver must do. If you stop on the shoulder or the traveled part of the highway for anything other than a necessary traffic stop, 49 CFR 392.22 still requires flashers on immediately and three warning devices out within 10 minutes, with placement adjusted for curves, hills and divided highways. Missing or unplaced triangles remain a roadside violation. The court fight is over whether a machine that cannot do that job gets a substitute by agency letter or only through a public rulemaking process.
Checklist
For drivers sharing the road with driverless trucks
Learn the signal. A truck stopped on the shoulder with amber beacons flashing high on the cab and no triangles behind it may be a driverless truck operating under this waiver, mostly on Texas interstates for now.
Treat it like any disabled vehicle: slow down and move over a lane when you can. Every state has a move-over law, and many now cover any vehicle displaying hazard lights.
Check your own kit during pre-trip: three bidirectional reflective triangles, or the flares or fusees the rule allows, stored where you can reach them fast. The 10-minute clock applies to you.
If you want a say in the permanent rule, the place for it is the exemption docket, FMCSA-2026-0958, on regulations.gov. Waivers take no public comment, which is exactly what this lawsuit is about.
Watch for October 9. Whether FMCSA issues a fifth waiver, decides the five-year exemption, or gets stopped by a court will show how the agency intends to handle driverless trucks from here.
Sources: Giannoulias v. FMCSA, No. 26-2838 (7th Cir.), petition for review and emergency motion for stay with declaration and exhibits, filed September 8, 2026, and order of September 10, 2026 (via CourtListener); FMCSA, letter to Aurora Operations, Inc. and Waiver of Warning Device Requirements, Terms and Conditions, July 9, 2026; Federal Register, 89 FR 105675 (December 27, 2024) and notice of Aurora's exemption application, docket FMCSA-2026-0958 (April 15, 2026); Overdrive, "New legal challenge to FMCSA's broad autonomous truck waiver," September 18, 2026; FreightWaves, "Autonomous trucking's triangle-shaped problem goes to court," January 2025.
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