It was announced recently by Kodiak Robotics via media release that Atlas has completed the delivery of 100 loads of proppant with its two RoboTrucks, semi-trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver, Kodiak’s self-driving system.
It was marked as a milestone as the first time ever that a Kodiak customer has taken ownership of a RoboTruck and launched driverless commercial semi-trucking operations.
According to the release, the initial driverless operations, which were announced in July 2024, involved Kodiak delivering Atlas’s frac sand along a 21-mile off-road route in West Texas’s Permian Basin with Kodiak-owned driverless trucks. With Kodiak providing the self-driving technology for these initial Atlas-owned RoboTrucks, Atlas is now able to complete its own driverless deliveries across the 75,000 square mile Permian Basin in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. This sets Kodiak apart as the first company in the autonomous trucking industry to launch commercial driverless trucking operations.
“This is an incredible moment, for us and for the autonomous trucking industry as we have officially delivered a commercial RoboTruck to a customer and launched commercial operations,” said Don Burnette, Founder and CEO, Kodiak. “The commercialization of autonomous trucks has been a goal for the industry for many years, and it has now come to fruition. Kodiak is the first company to make autonomous trucking a real business, and this is a major step towards profitability for our company.”
Atlas said it intends to scale its RoboTruck deployment considerably over the course of 2025 with multiple RoboTruck deployments expected throughout the year. Given the scale and scope of operations in the Permian Basin, Kodiak announced that it has established an office in Odessa, Texas to support Atlas’s operations. The 18,000-square-foot facility houses a team of 12 Kodiak employees, and is projected to grow to approximately 20 people by the end of Q1 2025.
Kodiak’s launch of driverless trucking service coincides with Atlas’s first deliveries of sand off of the Dune Express, a 42-mile long, fully-electric conveyor system that carries sand from Atlas’s Kermit, Texas sand facility to an end-of-line loadout facility in eastern New Mexico. Atlas’s Kodiak-driver equipped, autonomous RoboTrucks are expected to move sand from the Dune Express to Atlas’s customers across the Delaware Basin. The Dune Express is part of Atlas’s strategy to automate the entire logistics process for sand delivery to make it safer, more efficient, and more reliable. It also aims to eliminate millions of truck miles driven on public roads across the Permian, reducing traffic and improving safety.
“Incorporating these driverless RoboTrucks into our operations is a significant advancement in the automation of our business, enhancing our ability to maintain a fundamentally safe and reliable service at the best price for our customers,” said John Turner, CEO, Atlas. “Becoming the first company to operate our own autonomous semi-trucks and reaching 100 successful autonomous proppant deliveries demonstrates our unique commitment to driving innovation and automation across the Permian Basin’s rugged terrain, dust, and heat.”
Prior to launching driverless operations with Atlas, Kodiak successfully completed its safety case, which is a comprehensive evaluation that demonstrates the safety and readiness of its self-driving system, within Atlas’s operating domain. The delivery of the world’s first customer-owned driverless RoboTrucks for industrial operations happened in December 2024, and driverless service with these trucks commenced on December 18th, 2024. This is the first stage in Kodiak’s commercialization roadmap. As a next step, Kodiak will extend its safety case to highways for its long-haul customers.
The Kodiak Driver-equipped RoboTrucks feature Kodiak’s sixth generation platform, which includes all the redundant components required for operations without a safety driver. This includes Kodiak’s proprietary SensorPods™, pre-calibrated modular units that house all the sensors needed for autonomous driving, enabling fast and easy repairs
Bruce Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has lived in three states including Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia. During his nearly 20-year career, Bruce has served as managing editor and sports editor for numerous publications. He and his wife, Dana, who is also a journalist, are based in Carrollton, Georgia.
