One of the new autonomous vehicle startups in Silicon Valley, Drive.ai, has been awarded a license to test autonomous vehicles in California, making it the 13th company to be granted a license in the state.

The Mountain View-based firm, which received $12 million in venture funding late in 2015, is one of several small companies forging ahead to build the systems to control an autonomous vehicle, a direct challenge to neighboring tech goliath, Alphabet Inc. In addition, Zoox Inc., based in Palo Alto, received its license to...