Kodiak Robotics and Ryder have just punched the accelerator on the future of freight by setting up shop for autonomous trucks in Houston. The so-called truckport, which threw open its doors in December at Ryder's existing maintenance digs on 888 East Airtex Drive, is set to be the launch pad for Kodiak's driverless rigs that'll soon barrel down between Dallas and Houston sans human handlers.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Kodiak aims to have these driverless haulers hit the highway later this year. That's after they've been cutting their teeth on softer runs with safety drivers holding the reins along routes between Houston, Dallas, and Oklahoma City. The move looks to dive straight into autonomy without so much as the blinkers on since Kodiak announced that they plan to run a route between Dallas and Houston without safety drivers ready to take the wheel.
Don Burnette, Kodiak's founder, and CEO, has been not shy about the strategic alliance, telling the FreightWaves, “Ryder’s industry-leading fleet services and vast footprint of service locations makes it an ideal partner as we scale autonomous trucks,”
On the larger logistics, Ryder's flirted with several companies, but it seems like they're gambling on Kodiak to lead them in this automated waltz. Karen Jones, Ryder CMO and head of new product development acknowledged the company's strategy, saying, “It’s very important to us to make sure that we’re playing with the players that we think are going to actually have a chance at being the winners here." Jones divulged this line of thinking during a FreightWaves interview.
