Michigan-based automotive company Roush has delivered its first Kodiak Driver-equipped autonomous truck to Texas-based Atlas Energy.

California-based Kodiak Robotics provides AI-powered autonomous vehicle technology. Roush Industries serves the mobility, aerospace, defence and theme park industries.

Late last year, Atlas (www.atlas.energy) began taking delivery of Kodiak Driver-equipped trucks and launched driverless operations in the Permian Basin. To date, Atlas has taken delivery of eight Kodiak-powered driverless trucks, as part of an initial 100 truck order under its agreement with Kodiak.

“Taking delivery of the first Roush-upfitted truck is another example of how the future of freight is arriving,” said Don Burnette, CEO of Kodiak. “The speed and quality of Roush’s work confirm why we are confident they’re the right partner to help us transform the freight and logistics market at scale. Together, we believe we are well positioned to transform the trucking industry.”

Kodiak announced its manufacturing partnership with Roush in June this year. Since then, Roush has established a dedicated production line to scale the upfitting of trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver’s modular and vehicle-agnostic hardware. The manufacturing process includes upfitting trucks with the Kodiak Driver’s modular, vehicle-agnostic hardware, including its proprietary SensorPods, AI compute, Ace actuation control engine safety compute, and redundant actuation systems. Roush and Kodiak intend to scale production into the hundreds of trucks by the end of 2026.

“Delivering the first Roush-upfit truck shows how our contract manufacturing process can meet Kodiak’s high standards while supporting its ability to scale,” said Brad Rzetelny, vice president at Roush (www.roush.com). “We’re playing an important role in putting this technology where it belongs: into commercial service.”

Kodiak Robotics (kodiak.ai) was founded in 2018 and is a provider of AI-powered autonomous vehicle technology that is designed to help tackle tough driving jobs.