California’s Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program requires teens to hold a learner’s permit for 6 months and complete 50 hours of supervised driving, of which 10 hours must be at night (sunset to sunrise).
Who can supervise?
Your supervising driver must be 25 years or older and hold a valid California driver’s license. They must sit in the front seat beside you at all times.
Day vs. night — how California counts it
California defines nighttime as the period from sunset to sunrise. The exact times vary by season and location, which makes manually logging day vs. night hours error-prone. Apps like Student Driver Hours use your phone’s GPS and local sunrise/sunset data to split every drive automatically — no mental math needed.
After the 50 hours
Once you’ve completed 50 hours and held your permit for 6 months, you can take the California road test and receive your provisional (restricted) license.
Tips for California teen drivers
- Start logging from your very first drive — hours are easy to lose track of over six months
- Night hours are often the hardest to accumulate — plan a few dedicated evening drives each month
- Your exported PDF from Student Driver Hours includes date, duration, and day/night breakdown — the format California DMV expects
Track your California driving hours automatically
Student Driver Hours logs every drive with GPS, splits day and night time automatically, and exports a DMV-ready PDF — free on Android.
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