As we reach this milestone, we also wanted to tell the world a bit more about who we are.

Safety is our top priority

Among the many problems autonomous technology can help address, road safety is the most important. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 2018, there were nearly 5,000 vehicular deaths involving long-haul trucks. We think this number is unacceptable, and believe autonomous technology is part of the solution. Making roads safer is core to who we are and everything we do.

Our trucks will not drive drunk, distracted or drowsy. Our trucks will never speed, or text while driving. While humans often repeat their mistakes, software learns from them. Most importantly, we will not put a truck on the road without a human behind the wheel until we have proven that our trucks are safer than a human driver. Full stop.

We are more than a tech company

Yes, of course Kodiak is a tech company, but we’re also a true freight carrier, hauling goods safely, efficiently, and seamlessly for our customers. We are now hauling freight for commercial clients, using our autonomous technology. By making the middle mile driverless, we will bring the promise of self-driving technology not only to our customers, but to all motorists.

We think about autonomy differently

We’re taking a different approach to autonomy, one that we think positions us to be the first company to deploy scalable self-driving technology commercially at scale. Here is what makes us different:

Building for production, not prototypes:

Demonstration runs are important, but it’s critical that you don’t chase a perfect demonstration at the expense of a production vehicle. We’re not building proofs-of-concept, we’re building a solution.

It’s one thing to make a delivery with the cameras on, but it’s another to make thousands of deliveries that meet your customers’ needs over the life of a truck. Trucks are built for a million miles, and that life cycle demands an autonomy stack that can also last through Texas thunderstorms and summer heat. We’ve taken a top-down, systems engineering approach that draws on our team’s experience to build a system ready for these challenges. It is this above all else that sets us apart.

Building for trucks, not cars:

We’ve learned from experience that self-driving trucks are different from self-driving cars. Building a self-driving truck using technology originally developed for a car may save time in the short term, but ultimately will not get the job done. That’s why we are building a full-stack solution designed for trucks. Our hardware is tested and calibrated for our trucks and our software is designed to take advantage of that hardware.

Driving the hardest miles:

Many in the self-driving industry have worked to log as many miles as possible, hoping to iron out every possible issue over time. This is where we have a different philosophy. Testing to resolve uncertainty and ensure proper safety is not just about logging miles, it’s about logging the hardest miles. At Kodiak, we work to maximize learning and truck utilization while minimizing cost and risk exposure. We believe that driving the most difficult miles, and learning from those miles, will ultimately help us realize the promise of this technology safely, quickly and at scale.

It’s been a busy 16 months for our team, and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come. We look forward to sharing more about our journey.

See you on the road!