Kodiak Robotics today announced it has achieved its latest milestone in fully autonomous commercial vehicles by completing the delivery of a driverless truck to partner and customer Atlas Energy Solutions in Texas. The delivery marks a critical step toward launching commercial autonomous operations as early as next year.
Kodiak Robotics was founded in 2018 to develop an autonomous technology stack specifically for long-haul trucks to improve safety and efficiency in the freight transportation industry.
Since then, Kodiak has developed a unique modular hardware approach that integrates sensors into a holistic sensor pod architecture optimized for perception and scale. In 2019, the company completed its first autonomous commercial delivery with a safety driver in the driver’s seat, and in 2020, it completed a disconnect-free delivery, driving 205 miles between Dallas and Houston without a Kodiak driver controlling the system.
In 2022, Kodiak began working with the U.S. Army to apply its “Driver” autonomous technology to defense applications, and earlier this year the company billed itself as the first driverless truck company to build “an autonomous platform with all the redundancies necessary for safe driverless deployment.”
Today, Kodiak demonstrated a Class 8 driverless truck delivering sand for customer Atlas Energy Solutions.
Source: Kodiak Robotics
See Kodiak’s driverless trucks in action in West Texas
Kodiak’s previous partnership with Atlas enabled the company to successfully complete its first driverless truck delivery, which took place along a route through the Permian Basin in West Texas, an area known for its hot, dry terrain that can be extremely challenging for truck drivers.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, the Permian Basin accounted for 7% of Texas traffic fatalities in 2021, despite being home to less than 2% of the state’s total population. That made its dirt roads an excellent test case for Kodiak and its “Driver” self-driving truck technology, and as you can see in the video below, the technology was a success.
Kodiak says this driverless truck milestone is just the beginning of its collaboration with Atlas, which has already equipped two dedicated trucks with the Gen6 hardware stack to support customers. Atlas plans to deploy two Kodiak driverless trucks into its own commercial fleet operations in early 2025.
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