Autonomous trucking start-up Kodiak Robotics is partnering with lidar specialist Hesai Technology to integrate the latter’s 360-degree scanning lidars onto Kodiak’s mirror pods.

With long-range capabilities, Hesai’s lidars will enhance the side- and rear-view capability and redundancy of Kodiak Vision, a principles-based perception system designed by Kodiak to maximise use of LiDAR, cameras, and radar.

Kodiak’s technology is designed for deployment as an L4 autonomous trucking product, not as a proof-of-concept. Hesai’s LiDARs can feed Kodiak Vision with actionable data under a wide range of conditions, including tough environments Kodiak sees on Texas highways.

“Kodiak’s partnership with Hesai will be critical to making autonomous trucking a reality in the very near future,” said Don Burnette, Kodiak’s CEO. “Hesai’s LiDARs have the reliability and performance we need to deploy the Kodiak Driver in the harsh conditions common in long-haul trucking. We have built Kodiak as an ecosystem-first company, and are proud to be working with industry leaders to build an incredibly deep partnership network.”

“Hesai is thrilled to be integrating our LiDAR into the Kodiak Driver,” said David Li, Hesai’s CEO. “Kodiak is an industry leader in thoughtfully integrating sensor technology into self-driving stacks, and has built a principles-based perception system designed to get the most out of every sensing modality. Together, we can build one of the industry’s most capable and reliable self-driving solutions.”