Kodiak AI plans to start its first driverless long-haul service for IKEA by the end of the year, with no one in the cab. The driverless leg covers 219 miles, mostly on Interstate 45 between Kodiak’s Houston and Dallas-area facilities. It is part of the 292-mile route that carries IKEA goods from its Baytown distribution center to its store in Frisco.
Kodiak has hauled IKEA freight on the route for four years with a safety observer aboard. It has delivered more than 1,300 loads and logged more than 750,000 autonomous miles for IKEA. Kodiak now times each truck’s arrival in Frisco so IKEA can schedule unloading at a specific dock door. It also uses predictive maintenance data to plan service for each truck.
Kodiak tracks its progress with an autonomous readiness measure, or ARM, according to Trucking Dive. Its long-haul ARM is 93%, and Kodiak plans to go driverless at 100%. Its industrial fleet, operated by Atlas Energy Solutions in the Permian Basin, already meets that bar. Kodiak began its long-haul launch program last month from its hub in Lancaster, Texas, with a safety observer on board.
Founder and CEO Don Burnette said the progress toward driverless deliveries “is a strong signal we are ready to scale unsupervised driverless service on long-haul lanes.”
Aurora went driverless on the same Dallas-Houston lane last year. It added a 600-mile Fort Worth-El Paso route six months later. Aurora had about 20 driverless trucks on the road in late September and plans to have 200 by the end of the year.
Kodiak is completing its safety case for driverless long-haul operations before the IKEA launch.
