Loblaw is putting up to 50 autonomous trucks on the road across Greater Toronto and taking an equity stake in the company that runs them, Gatik. The five-year deal makes Canada's largest grocer both a Gatik customer and a part-owner through the Weston family's Wittington Ventures.
How it works: The rollout is phased and runs on fixed DC-to-store routes.
20 trucks by end of 2025, with 30 more by end of 2026 to reach 50
Class 6-7 medium-duty, cold-chain-capable vehicles serving more than 300 Loblaw stores
Safety drivers ride first, then the trucks go driver-out ‘Freight-Only’, operating under Ontario's Automated Commercial Motor Vehicle pilot
Gatik CEO Gautam Narang said the driver-out transition is “the biggest contributor for having profitable margins.” Full driverless operation in heavy rain or snow remains “further down the roadmap,” he said. The trucks currently operate in light precipitation only.
The equity angle: Gatik has lined up a coalition of operator-investors. Isuzu invested $30 million in 2024, while 3PL Nippon Express and trading house Itochu have also taken stakes.
The company cited $600 million in contracted revenue earlier this year. For Loblaw, the investment is a bet that Gatik’s model can scale. For Gatik, support from a major grocer's balance sheet is a validation point.
Peer contrast: Walmart took an equity stake in robotaxi firm Cruise in 2021 for last-mile delivery. That position unwound when Cruise halted driverless operations in late 2023 and GM shut down the unit in 2024.
Loblaw’s bet is different. It focuses on fixed DC-to-store routes and logged commercial miles rather than open-road robotaxis. PepsiCo runs Gatik trucks across Arizona, Texas and Arkansas, but without disclosed equity. The companies describe the Loblaw rollout as the largest planned autonomous-truck deployment in North America.
What's next: The move from driver-in to driver-out under the Ontario pilot will determine the commercial timeline. Gatik has not given a target date for full driver-out on the Toronto routes. Weather remains the stated limit on broader deployment.
