Kodiak is planning to bring its fully self-driving trucks to highways later this year. I took a test ride to see the technology in action.

Despite the growing number of players in the space, self-driving vehicles remain far from ubiquitous. In places like the San Francisco Bay Area, hailing a robotaxi is now nearly as easy as requesting an Uber. But in most cities, driverless cars have yet to surface at all.

Still, autonomous vehicles of all sizes and purposes continue to crop up in various regions. Kodiak AI is one company looking to shake up transportation and shipping in the near future. Founded in 2018, it set out to deploy semi trucks on highways without a human behind the wheel, and it’s getting close to realizing that vision.

The company’s autonomous driving system, called the Kodiak Driver, launched in December 2024, and has so far been deployed in 35 fully driverless trucks, which are owned and operated by Atlas Energy Solutions in the Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas. The trucks haul frac sand, typically used during hydraulic fracking to help keep fractures in rock formations open, from depots to well sites.

Now, Kodiak wants to bring its fully driverless operations to the highway, starting in Texas with services for furniture giant Ikea later this year. That route will operate between Houston and Dallas, spanning 219 miles primarily along Interstate 45.

Massive trucks barreling down highways without a driver may be a daunting vision, but Michael Wiesinger, Kodiak’s chief operating officer, says they’ll make transportation more reliable and efficient.

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