This yr is shaping as much as be an enormous one for self-driving vehicles. Along with Aurora’s plan to deploy lots of of autonomous large rigs and Waabi increasing into robotaxis, you’ve additionally acquired Kodiak AI aiming to launch its personal absolutely driverless long-haul freight operation by the tip of 2026. Whereas robotaxis should win all of the headlines, driverless vehicles are making their very own progress, slowly however certainly.
However in a current interview, Kodiak AI CEO Don Burnette mentioned that deploying autonomous vehicles is absolutely solely half the battle. He mentioned that whereas most of his opponents are fussing over particulars like AI, notion, and mileage milestones, Kodiak is planning for the fact of working a enterprise. That features answering vital questions like who owns the vehicles, how a lot uptime will likely be required, and what finally will get shipped.
“So that you begin to in a short time understand that it’s not simply does the truck function safely on the highway … that’s desk stakes,” Burnette mentioned. “What actually issues to clients is how effectively and successfully can I get that truck into and out of my operation … and all the pieces in between. And no person talks about this both.”
Kodiak AI (previously Kodiak Robotics) was based in 2018 by Burnette, a veteran of Google’s self-driving automobile undertaking (now referred to as Waymo), and Paz Eshel. The corporate is growing self-driving vehicles for freeway and industrial makes use of, in addition to the protection trade. In 2025, the corporate’s vehicles started making driverless deliveries for Atlas Power Options within the oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and jap New Mexico, and now operates 20 driverless vehicles there. Kodiak AI went public by way of a reverse SPAC merger in September 2025.
And now the corporate is lastly prepared for the open highway. Burnette mentioned that Kodiak operates throughout a number of verticals, with a emphasis on industrial and off-road trucking, which he views as a significant alternative in comparison with conventional on-road autonomy. He describes these environments as “unstructured,” as a result of they’re extra advanced and unpredictable. On this method, he says his vehicles have change into higher ready for extra “structured” environments, like highways.
“We plan to drag the driving force by the tip of the yr,” Burnette mentioned. “Keep in mind the product isn’t useful except it’s driverless.”
However first, Kodiak wants to finish its security case. This contains intensive knowledge assortment, driving just about in a simulated world, and creating an in depth plan for danger mitigation. Burnette mentioned his workforce’s background at Waymo helped affect its rigorous method to security.
Kodiak can also be taking a special method to its enterprise mannequin than another firms. In contrast to opponents who anticipated OEMs to ship autonomous-ready vehicles, Burnette mentioned that Kodiak is growing an aftermarket answer in partnership with firms like Roush Industries and Bosch, which permits them to provide absolutely compliant, automotive-grade vehicles and scale extra successfully as soon as the expertise is prepared. As such, the 20 vehicles that Kodiak has delivered to this point are owned and operated by its clients, not Kodiak itself.
That is the place Kodiak differs from its friends, and even Waymo. Burnette says that when the shopper owns the automobile, they care about key metrics like utilization, uptime, upkeep, and income always. This creates a a lot increased bar for reliability and operational efficiency, he argues.
“When a buyer owns the automobile, it has to work,” Burnette mentioned. “Clients are going to anticipate the truck to work on a regular basis. So that you’ve acquired to hit that bar earlier than you possibly can actually promote a truck to the shopper.”
When the autonomous automobile developer owns the truck, relatively than the shopper, they will stage-manage their deployments with out worrying about real-world performance.
“These are their very own vehicles,” he says of his rivals. “So in the event that they solely work at some point of the week, or they solely work for like 5 hours of at some point, no person cares … They’re nonetheless driverless and so they nonetheless get to assert victory. However that will by no means work with a buyer. Like, that’s not an actual product.”
Kodiak AI CEO and cofounder Don Burnette. Picture: Kodiak AI
Burnette may be blunt when speaking about his opponents. When requested whether or not Kodiak would increase its product portfolio to incorporate robotaxis, like Waabi lately did, he responds, “Did Wabi have a product earlier than they existed?” He thinks Kodiak is forward of its rivals when it comes to real-world deployment and operational rigor. He suggests many autonomous automobile firms emphasize spectacular expertise and visuals, however haven’t crossed the more durable threshold of delivering a usable, customer-owned product:
“They produce nice movies … they’ve acquired snazzy visuals,” he says of his opponents.
He maintains that the majority firms haven’t solved what he calls the third pillar: making autonomy truly usable in actual workflows. This contains integrating driverless vehicles into buyer operations, dealing with the complexities of pickups and dropoffs, and offering monitoring and communication instruments. The remainder of the pack is concentrated on driving efficiency, whereas ignoring full-system integration. Kodiak AI is doing each.
“No person talks about this,” he says.
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