US-based autonomous truck start-up Kodiak Robotics has completed its first commercial delivery to Atlas Energy.
The start-up delivered two of its autonomous semi-trucks equipped with Kodiak’s self-driving system, marking the first time ever that a customer has taken ownership of a RoboTruck and launched driverless commercial semi-trucking operations.
Don Burnette, Founder and CEO of Kodiak, said:
“The commercialisation of autonomous trucks has been a goal for the industry for many years, and it has now come to fruition. Kodiak is the first company to make autonomous trucking a real business, and this is a major step towards profitability for our company.”
The initial driverless operations, which were announced in July 2024, involved Kodiak delivering Atlas’s frac sand along a 21-mile off-road route in West Texas’s Permian Basin with Kodiak-owned driverless trucks.
Atlas intends to scale its RoboTruck deployment considerably over the course of 2025 with multiple RoboTruck deployments expected throughout the year.
John Turner, CEO of Atlas, said:
“Incorporating these driverless RoboTrucks into our operations is a significant advancement in the automation of our business, enhancing our ability to maintain a fundamentally safe and reliable service at the best price for our customers. Becoming the first company to operate our own autonomous semi-trucks and reaching 100 successful autonomous proppant deliveries demonstrates our unique commitment to driving innovation and automation across the Permian Basin’s rugged terrain, dust, and heat.”
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