Kodiak reveals production-ready autonomous truck at CES

Kodiak and Aurora take different approaches to driverless rollout

Mountain View, California-based Kodiak and Pittsburgh-based rival Aurora Innovation both plan commercial driverless operations from Houston to Dallas this year.

Aurora’s approach is different. It partnered with Paccar Inc. and Volvo Group on redundant chassis designs for its robotic driving system. Aurora also is working with Tier 1 supplier Continental AG on automotive-grade hardware expected in 2027.

“While we are working closely with OEM partners to develop our technology, we have intentionally developed the Kodiak Driver so that we are not dependent on OEMs to commercialize,” Kodiak founder Don Burnette told FreightWaves. “While OEMs are making great strides, progress is slow, and some are still years away from offering a driverless-ready truck platform“By building our own driverless-ready truck, we can maintain control over how and when we bring our technology to market. We believe this approach is unique in the industry. In the long run, we expect that our technology will be direct from the OEMs. But we think our approach will give us an advantage for the next few years.”

Kodiak in December showed a prototype system installed on a Ford F-150 pickup truck for off-highway use by the military. It plans to roll out its latest system to multiple vehicle types.

“Over the course of 2.5 million miles, we’ve successfully demonstrated that our self-driving trucks can withstand the harsh environment of long-haul trucking from both a platform integrity and a software perspective,” Burnette said. “This truck fundamentally demonstrates that we’ve done the work necessary to safely handle driverless operations.”

Source: freightwaves.com