Kodiak has made its first driverless truck deliveries to customer Atlas Energy

Kodiak Robotics has formally handed off two autonomous vehicles to buyer Atlas Vitality Options, marking the startup’s first industrial launch. 

Atlas, a supplier of proppant (i.e., sand) and oilfield logistics, obtained its first Kodiak-equipped vehicles in December and commenced driverless operations in an off-road surroundings in West Texas’s distant Permian Basin shortly after. The corporate has already delivered 100 hundreds utilizing self-driving vehicles with out a human security driver behind the wheel, in line with Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette. 

“That is the primary time, so far as we’re conscious, that the client is proudly owning and working the driverless car, as a substitute of the AV firm, and we expect that is the mannequin of the long run,” Burnette informed TechCrunch.

Till now, Kodiak — and its rivals within the area like Aurora Innovation and Waabi — has carried out industrial pilots for purchasers on highways with human security drivers behind the wheel. Throughout these pilots, Kodiak-owned vehicles ran freight on behalf of shippers or carriers. The aim, although, is to promote the AI Driver-as-a-Answer to firms like Atlas. In different phrases, Kodiak and others don’t wish to run their very own transport operations in the long term, however moderately deal with promoting the self-driving know-how.

For comparability, within the robotaxi trade, firms like Waymo and previously Cruise have owned and operated their very own ride-hail companies, however Waymo’s latest partnerships with Uber and Moovit sign that the corporate could finally bow out of working such companies, too.   

Kodiak first introduced its partnership with Atlas in July 2024 after the 2 accomplished Kodiak’s first driverless run delivering frac sand in West Texas’s distant Permian Basin – an unstructured, off-road surroundings. Whereas Kodiak nonetheless has energetic pilots working freight on highways and plans to pursue long-haul autonomous trucking, the Atlas deal is a key a part of the startup’s near-term go-to-market technique. 

Off-road autonomy has its personal set of distinctive challenges – like a consistently altering panorama and no HD maps to depend on – nevertheless it presents a quicker path to income than freeway driving, in accordance Burnette. 

And that guess is already bearing fruit.

Kodiak is now producing income from Atlas via a mixed {hardware} and software program annual subscription that features the price of Kodiak’s modular sensors, that are fitted onto the Atlas-owned vehicles, in addition to the self-driving software program, monitoring, and replace companies.

“We combine APIs into [the customer’s transportation management system] that permits Atlas to make use of their current instruments to successfully inform the driverless vehicles the place to go,” Burnette stated. “However extra importantly, they management the logistics. We’re not concerned in that. We simply ensure that whereas the vehicles are working, that they’re up, they’re wholesome, they’re protected, and if there are any points, we are able to step in and carry out upkeep.” 

Atlas, which operates throughout the 75,000 square-mile Permian Foundation in Texas and New Mexico, plans to scale its driverless trucking deployments over the course of the yr, so Kodiak has established an workplace in close by Odessa, Texas to help Atlas’s operations – an 18,000-square-foot facility with a staff of 12 Kodiak workers. Kodiak intends to develop that quantity to about 20 individuals by the tip of the primary quarter.