Kodiak Robotics has formally handed off two autonomous vehicles to buyer Atlas Vitality Options, marking the startup’s first business launch.
Atlas, a supplier of proppant (i.e., sand) and oilfield logistics, obtained its first Kodiak-equipped vehicles in December and started driverless operations in an off-road atmosphere in West Texas’s distant Permian Basin shortly after. The corporate has already delivered 100 masses utilizing self-driving vehicles with out a human security driver behind the wheel, in accordance with Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette.
“That is the primary time, so far as we’re conscious, that the shopper is proudly owning and working the driverless car, as an alternative of the AV firm, and we predict that is the mannequin of the longer term,” Burnette informed TechCrunch.
Till now, Kodiak — and its rivals within the house like Aurora Innovation and Waabi — has carried out business pilots for patrons on highways with human security drivers behind the wheel. Throughout these pilots, Kodiak-owned vehicles ran freight on behalf of shippers or carriers. The objective, although, is to promote the AI Driver-as-a-Resolution to corporations like Atlas. In different phrases, Kodiak and others don’t need to run their very own delivery operations in the long term, however relatively give attention to promoting the self-driving expertise.
For comparability, within the robotaxi trade, corporations like Waymo and previously Cruise have owned and operated their very own ride-hail providers, however Waymo’s latest partnerships with Uber and Moovit sign that the corporate might ultimately bow out of working such providers, 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 atmosphere. Whereas Kodiak nonetheless has lively pilots operating 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 always altering panorama and no HD maps to depend on – but it surely presents a sooner 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 providers.
“We combine APIs into [the customer’s transportation management system] that enables Atlas to make use of their present 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 make it possible for whereas the vehicles are working, that they’re up, they’re wholesome, they’re secure, and if there are any points, we will 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 12 months, so Kodiak has established an workplace in close by Odessa, Texas to assist Atlas’s operations – an 18,000-square-foot facility with a staff of 12 Kodiak staff. Kodiak intends to develop that quantity to about 20 individuals by the top of the primary quarter.
