Kodiak, 10 Roads Categorical associate on coast-to-coast pilot route

Dive Temporary:

• Kodiak Robotics has launched a partnership with service 10 Roads Categorical, finishing 4 industrial supply routes, in accordance with a press launch. 
• The work for 10 Roads, which supplies time delicate floor transportation for the U.S. Postal Service, included a Kodiak truck carrying freight throughout 5,600 miles, starting in San Antonio to the San Francisco Bay space, to Jacksonville, Florida and at last again to San Antonio.
• “We’re centered on servicing routes that match the real-world wants of our clients,” Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak in an announcement. “10 Roads Categorical’s community of lengthy length-of-haul routes makes it a perfect associate for Kodiak.”

Dive Perception:

Kodiak traversed the 5,600-mile route in 114 hours over 5 days, an effectivity that’s notably useful when delivering time-sensitive freight, like that from 10 Roads.

The industrial run lasted from June 27 to July 2. Like its different latest industrial pilot routes, security drivers had been current always, Burnette stated in an e mail, and 5 drivers rotated shifts all through the journey.

10 Roads Categorical supplies scheduled truck supply for U.S. Mail and operates beneath a USPS Freeway Contract, in accordance with the corporate’s web site. Nevertheless, Kodiak couldn’t touch upon the contents of the hundreds delivered for the service, “as a result of our dedication to buyer confidentiality,” Burnette stated in an e mail. 

Kodiak’s partnership with 10 Roads Categorical is one other side of the startup’s widening route attain, as autonomous trucking firms throughout the nation look to scale up their capabilities. Kodiak didn’t specify its subsequent initiatives with 10 Roads Categorical, however Burnette stated the 2 firms are working to “determine lanes the place they’ll leverage autonomous vans within the quick time period whereas additionally evaluating long-term alternatives.”

The startup has secured three trucking partnership thus far, with 10 Roads Categorical becoming a member of the listing after U.S. Xpress and CEVA Logistics. In April, Kodiak introduced a partnership with U.S. Xpress to run an autonomous industrial between Dallas-Fort Price and Atlanta, in addition to the completion of a round-trip pilot run between Dallas and Atlanta that ran 24 hours a day and accomplished the journey in 131 hours.

Different firms have beforehand accomplished a coast-to-coast self-driving trucking route; for instance Embark Vehicles drove from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida in 2018, and in 2019 Plus.ai accomplished a coast-to-coast drive in three days on behalf of Land O’Lakes. 

The brand new partnership, nonetheless, does present the rising push from autonomous trucking firms to indicate what they’ll do.

Main startups together with Kodiak, Embark and Aurora have just lately accomplished publicized assessments of their vans’ security capabilities, similar to efficiently pulling off the highway when a system error happens, whereas others like Waymo are forming strategic partnerships with family manufacturers similar to Uber Freight and Wayfair.