Autonomous-trucking startup to run delivery routes for Martin Brower

When you pull into the fast-food drive-thru, you’re probably not thinking about the complicated logistics dance that enabled your afternoon pick-me-up.

Now, an autonomous truck could be part of the equation for a limited number of people in the Southwest US.

Kodiak Robotics, the Mountain View, California-based autonomous-trucking startup, announced on Thursday the start of a new delivery route for global logistics company Martin Brower, which counts McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A among its customers.

As Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette put it in a press release, “Your next order of fries may have traveled on a Kodiak truck.”

Kodiak already has completed 600 trips for Martin Brower since 2022; the start of delivery runs between Dallas and Oklahoma City eight times a week is an expansion of the companies’ partnership and marks another step toward Kodiak commercializing its technology. The startup aims to begin driverless operations later this year after testing its technology on highways with human drivers on board. The new route for Martin Brower will initially include safety drivers and eventually go driverless.

Kodiak trucks will “autonomously deliver time-critical refrigerated freight,” while local (human) drivers will distribute the items to restaurants.

“What Martin Brower wants to combine is the benefits of the long-haul truck in terms of safety, efficiency, and so on, but also the benefits of the human driver, which is the human touch, the customer service they provide to these restaurants,” Michael Wiesinger, Kodiak’s VP of commercialization, told Tech Brew. “We’re kind of combining the best of two worlds here.”

Wiesinger sees food delivery as “one of the best applications for autonomous trucks” because it could help ensure that perishable products are delivered on time and thus “avoid any food spoilage.”

Earlier this year, Kodiak revealed its sixth-gen product: a semi truck that is slated to start running driverless routes between Dallas and Houston this year. The company aims to install its self-driving tech in customers’ fleets next year.

Honk if you’re autonomous: This year is shaping up to be a big one for the autonomous-trucking sector, with numerous players planning to take drivers out of the cabin.

Those plans have faced resistance from labor unions and traffic safety advocates who are concerned about the potential impact on existing driver jobs and a lack of federal regulations. AV proponents contend that the technology is a good fit for long-haul trucking because those vehicles tend to stick to more predictable highway routes, avoiding the urban traffic that has proven challenging for the robotaxi sector.

Kodiak’s other customers include logistics firms like Maersk, Ikea, and the Department of Defense.