Kodiak signs binding deal with DTL Transport to run 75 driverless trucks on US highways

Kodiak AI, the Mountain View company listed on Nasdaq, announced on October 28 that DTL Transport has agreed to equip 75 of its trucks with the Kodiak Driver, Kodiak's autonomous driving system, and run them without anyone at the wheel. Kodiak describes the arrangement as the first publicly announced definitive agreement by an interstate trucking company to run driverless trucks inside its own fleet.

What the agreement covers

DTL, a refrigerated and dry freight carrier from Fresno, California, will keep ownership and operation of the vehicles. Under Kodiak's "Driver-as-a-Service" model, it pays a fee for every mile the software drives. Neither company disclosed the per-mile rate, the overall value of the contract or how long it runs.

Service is planned across the Sun Belt. According to Kodiak, the first driverless lanes will be Interstate 10 between Dallas and El Paso and Interstate 20 between Dallas and Atlanta, two corridors where it has already done testing. Kodiak argues that these routes will let DTL run beyond the limits on how long human drivers may work, and says more lanes will follow. The release does not give a date for the first driverless runs.

The deal follows a September pilot in which Kodiak's system hauled perishable goods for DTL over 225 miles between Fresno and Los Angeles. Kodiak says this was the first commercial freight autonomously moved by a Class 8 truck in California, under a heavy-duty testing permit issued by the state's DMV this summer.

Why it matters for autonomous trucking

Most driverless truck deployments so far have been run by the technology companies themselves or confined to private sites. Kodiak's main existing customer, Atlas Energy Solutions, operated 35 driverless trucks as of June 30 in an industrial setting, and Kodiak has committed to growing that fleet to 100 by mid-2027. The DTL agreement extends the model to a conventional long-haul carrier on public interstates.

DTL is a relatively small operator, with a fleet of more than 100 trucks serving grocery chains and produce shippers, so the 75-truck commitment represents a large share of its business. Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette said the model is "tailor-made for commercial trucking."

Open questions

Key details remain unknown: when the 75 trucks will actually run without a safety driver, at what pace they will be added, and how the economics compare with human-driven freight. Kodiak separately plans to start driverless highway runs for IKEA on Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston before the end of 2026, which will offer an earlier test of its public-road operations.