Kodiak CEO says making trucks drive themselves is only half the battle | The VergeSkip to main contentThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.The VergeThe Verge logo.TechReviewsScienceEntertainmentAIPolicyHamburger Navigation ButtonThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.Hamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandAmazonAppleFacebookGoogleMicrosoftSamsungBusinessSee all techReviewsExpandSmart Home ReviewsPhone ReviewsTablet ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsSee all reviewsScienceExpandSpaceEnergyEnvironmentHealthSee all scienceEntertainmentExpandTV ShowsMoviesAudioSee all entertainmentAIExpandOpenAIAnthropicSee all AIPolicyExpandAntitrustPoliticsLawSecuritySee all policyGadgetsExpandLaptopsPhonesTVsHeadphonesSpeakersWearablesSee all gadgetsVerge ShoppingExpandBuying GuidesDealsGift GuidesSee all shoppingGamingExpandXboxPlayStationNintendoSee all gamingStreamingExpandDisneyHBONetflixYouTubeCreatorsSee all streamingTransportationExpandElectric CarsAutonomous CarsRide-sharingScootersSee all transportationFeaturesVerge VideoExpandTikTokYouTubeInstagramPodcastsExpandDecoderThe VergecastVersion HistoryNewslettersArchivesStoreVerge Product UpdatesSubscribeFacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSThe VergeThe Verge logo.Kodiak CEO says making trucks drive themselves is only half the battleComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...TransportationCloseTransportationPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TransportationNewsCloseNewsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NewsAutonomous CarsCloseAutonomous CarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Autonomous CarsKodiak CEO says making trucks drive themselves is only half the battleThe company plans to launch fully driverless long-haul freight operations by the end of 2026.The company plans to launch fully driverless long-haul freight operations by the end of 2026.by Andrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsTransportation editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. HawkinsMar 21, 2026, 11:00 AM UTCLinkShareGiftImage: Kodiak AIAndrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. Hawkins is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.This year is shaping up to be a big one for self-driving trucks. In addition to Aurora’s plan to deploy hundreds of autonomous big rigs and Waabi expanding into robotaxis, you’ve also got Kodiak AI aiming to launch its own fully driverless long-haul freight operation by the end of 2026. While robotaxis may still win all the headlines, driverless trucks are making their own progress, slowly but surely.But in a recent interview, Kodiak AI CEO Don Burnette said that deploying autonomous trucks is really only half the battle. He said that while most of his competitors are fussing over details like AI, perception, and mileage milestones, Kodiak is planning for the reality of operating a business. That includes answering important questions like who owns the trucks, how much uptime will be required, and what ultimately gets shipped.“So you start to very quickly realize that it’s not just does the truck operate safely on the road … that’s table stakes,” Burnette said. “What really matters to customers is how efficiently and effectively can I get that truck into and out of my operation … and everything in between. And nobody talks about this either.”Kodiak AI (formerly Kodiak Robotics) was founded in 2018 by Burnette, a veteran of Google’s self-driving car project (now called Waymo), and Paz Eshel. The company is developing self-driving trucks for highway and industrial uses, as well as the defense industry. In 2025, the company’s trucks began making driverless deliveries for Atlas Energy Solutions in the oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and eastern New Mexico, and now operates 20 driverless trucks there. Kodiak AI went public through a reverse SPAC merger in September 2025.RelatedWhere are all the robot trucks?And now the company is finally ready for the open road. Burnette said that Kodiak operates across multiple verticals, with a emphasis on industrial and off-road trucking, which he views as a major opportunity compared to traditional on-road autonomy. He describes these environments as “unstructured,” because they’re more complex and unpredictable. In this way, he says his trucks have become better prepared for more “structured” environments, like highways.“We plan to pull the driver by the end of the year,” Burnette said. “Remember the product isn’t valuable unless it’s driverless.”But first, Kodiak needs to complete its safety case. This includes extensive data collection, driving virtually in a simulated world, and creating a detailed plan for risk mitigation. Burnette said his team’s background at Waymo helped influence its rigorous approach to safety.PreviousNext1/3Image: Kodiak AIKodiak is also taking a different approach to its business model than some other companies. Unlike competitors who expected OEMs to deliver autonomous-ready trucks, Burnette said that Kodiak is developing an aftermarket solution in partnership with companies like Roush Industries and Bosch, which allows them to produce fully compliant, automotive-grade trucks and scale more effectively once the technology is ready. As such, the 20 trucks that Kodiak has delivered so far are owned and operated by its customers, not Kodiak itself.This is where Kodiak differs from its peers, and even Waymo. Burnette says that when the customer owns the vehicle, they care about key metrics like utilization, uptime, maintenance, and revenue at all times. This creates a much higher bar for reliability and operational performance, he argues.“When a customer owns the vehicle, it has to work,” Burnette said. “Customers are going to expect the truck to work all the time. So you’ve got to hit that bar before you can really sell a truck to the customer.”When the autonomous vehicle developer owns the truck, rather than the customer, they can stage-manage their deployments without worrying about real-world functionality.“Those are their own trucks,” he says of his rivals. “So if they only work one day of the week, or they only work for like five hours of one day, nobody cares … They’re still driverless and they still get to claim victory. But that would never work with a customer. Like, that’s not a real product.”Kodiak AI CEO and cofounder Don Burnette. Image: Kodiak AIBurnette can be blunt when talking about his competitors. When asked whether Kodiak would expand its product portfolio to include robotaxis, like Waabi recently did, he responds, “Did Wabi have a product before they existed?” He thinks Kodiak is ahead of its rivals in terms of real-world deployment and operational rigor. He suggests many autonomous vehicle companies emphasize impressive technology and visuals, but haven’t crossed the harder threshold of delivering a usable, customer-owned product:“They produce great videos … they’ve got snazzy visuals,” he says of his competitors.He maintains that most companies haven’t solved what he calls the third pillar: making autonomy actually usable in real workflows. This includes integrating driverless trucks into customer operations, handling the complexities of pickups and dropoffs, and providing monitoring and communication tools. The rest of the pack is focused on driving performance, while ignoring full-system integration. Kodiak AI is doing both.“Nobody talks about this,” he says.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Andrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. 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Kodiak AI’s CEO, Don Burnette, presents a nuanced perspective on the autonomous trucking industry, arguing that technological advancement alone – specifically, the successful operation of self-driving trucks – represents merely a preliminary step, and not a complete solution for widespread adoption. Burnette distinguishes his company’s approach from that of competitors, who, in his view, primarily focus on core technical hurdles like artificial intelligence, perception, and mileage targets. Instead, Kodiak emphasizes a pragmatic, business-oriented strategy, recognizing that true commercial viability hinges on operational efficiency and customer integration. The company’s assessment reveals a critical understanding that the inherent complexities of integrating autonomous trucks into existing logistical workflows—encompassing aspects such as ownership, uptime requirements, delivery logistics, and comprehensive monitoring—constitute a significantly more challenging domain. Burnette’s commentary highlights a “table stakes” approach, asserting that simply achieving autonomous operation on a road is insufficient; instead, a compelling product necessitates seamless integration into customer operations, a factor largely overlooked by many contemporary firms.

Kodiak AI’s strategic divergence is manifested in its business model, prioritizing an aftermarket solution through partnerships with companies like Roush Industries and Bosch, enabling greater scalability and customer ownership over the vehicles themselves. This approach contrasts sharply with some competitors’ reliance on OEMs to deliver fully autonomous trucks and underscores a focus on measurable operational metrics – utilization, uptime, and maintenance – that directly impact customer satisfaction. Burnette’s critique of competitors extends to their emphasis on technological demonstrations and compelling visuals, arguing that they fail to address the crucial “third pillar” of real-world usability concerning workflow integration, pickup/drop-off procedures, and comprehensive support tools. Essentially, Kodiak’s approach prioritizes a holistic, customer-centric operational framework rather than solely focusing on technological prowess. His frank assessment emphasizes that a technologically impressive, yet functionally deficient, system would be fundamentally unviable, making the operational integration a critical determinant of product success.

Furthermore, Burnette’s commentary reveals a measured skepticism toward other autonomous vehicle companies, notably Waabi, suggesting that many have prioritized demonstrable technological achievements over the difficult, albeit essential, task of delivering a usable product. He characterizes these companies as “producing great videos…they’ve got snazzy visuals,” without addressing the core requirements of real-world, customer-owned deployments. The company’s background at Waymo, with its emphasis on rigorous safety protocols, informs its approach, indicating a disciplined and data-driven methodology. Kodiak’s ultimate goal is to demonstrate operational efficacy in “unstructured” environments—industrial and off-road trucking—represented by the Permian Basin, which are significantly more unpredictable than traditional highway corridors. By focusing on these challenging environments, Kodiak has cultivated a more robust testing ground and potentially enhanced the resilience and adaptability of its autonomous system. In essence, the company's focus is not merely on achieving driverless operation, but on establishing a demonstrably viable and reliably performing autonomous system within operational contexts where the technical challenges are greater.