Bridgestone Americas has announced it made a minority investment in Kodiak Robotics, a leading U.S.-based self-driving trucking company. The partnership will allow Bridgestone to integrate its smart-sensing tire technologies and fleet solutions into Kodiak’s Level 4 autonomous trucks. The companies will pilot future autonomous and smart-tire technologies to further enhance vehicle intelligence and advance toward what they believe is a safer, more efficient, and more sustainable mobility future.
Kodiak moves freight autonomously for its customers using its fleet of Level 4 self-driving long-haul trucks in Texas with a safety driver on board. With plans to deploy driverless trucks in the next few years, the company says that full vehicle intelligence is a major key to unlocking safe, efficient, and sustainable autonomy for its customers.
“Automated vehicles offer a number of benefits to commercial fleet customers and society, including safer roads with fewer unexpected incidents and upwards of 20% savings in fuel and efficiency,” said Paolo Ferrari, Global Chief Solutions Officer, Bridgestone Corp., and President & CEO, Bridgestone Americas. “Advancements in tire-centric technologies are critical to unlocking greater innovation in mobility, while also delivering significant sustainability benefits. This investment will enable Bridgestone and Kodiak to work together to co-develop advanced mobility solutions with speed and precision that will revolutionize commercial trucking.”
Bridgestone’s suite of cloud-based technologies leverages connected vehicle data to help predict tire health and maintenance as well as optimize tire lifespan. The company’s vehicle-platform technologies provide tire intelligence to vehicle safety and autonomous systems to tune their performance and drive safer outcomes.
Kodiak and Bridgestone aim to link vehicle-based and smart-sensing tire technologies to improve vehicle safety, fleet efficiency, and the next generation of autonomous trucking solutions.
“Bridgestone’s investment is a huge moment for Kodiak and a great validation of our industry-leading autonomous system,” said Don Burnette, Co-founder and CEO, Kodiak Robotics. “As part of our partnership, we are pleased to welcome Bridgestone’s Chief Technology Officer and Group President, Solutions Businesses, Nizar Trigui, to our Board of Directors as an observer.”
Founded in 2018 by Burnette, an earlier founder of the self-driving truck company Otto, and COO Paz Eshel, a former venture capitalist, Kodiak is developing autonomous technology that “carries freight forward.”
The company stresses that it has built its technology specifically for deployment as an L4 autonomous trucking product and not as a proof-of-concept. In just three years, the company—headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with a testing and operations hub in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX—is already earning revenue while it validates its system by hauling daily customer freight between Dallas and Houston.
In January, Kodiak says it became the first company in the autonomous trucking industry to announce disengage-free customer deliveries and released footage of over 1000 mi (1600 km) of disengage-free driving.
However, the company has plans for even better performance. In March, it announced a partnership to integrate Hesai Technology Co., Ltd.’s 360-degree scanning LiDARs onto Kodiak’s patent-pending mirror pods.
With their long-range capabilities, Hesai’s LiDARs will enhance the side- and rear-view capability and redundancy of Kodiak Vision, the principles-based perception system that maximizes the value of LiDAR, camera, and radar sensors. After a rigorous evaluation process, Kodiak says that Hesai’s LiDARs demonstrated their ability to feed Kodiak Vision with actionable data under a wide range of conditions, including the tough environments Kodiak sees on Texas highways.
“Kodiak’s partnership with Hesai will be critical to making autonomous trucking a reality in the very near future,” said Burnette. “We have built Kodiak as an ecosystem-first company and are proud to be working with industry leaders to build an incredibly deep partnership network.”
“Kodiak is an industry leader in thoughtfully integrating sensor technology into self-driving stacks, and has built a principles-based perception system designed to get the most out of every sensing modality,” said David Li, Hesai’s CEO.
Kodiak is also looking to expand its business globally. In May, the company announced a partnership with SK Inc., a holding company of South Korea conglomerate SK Group, to bring the Kodiak Driver, the company’s self-driving technology, to the Asia-Pacific markets. SK will work with Kodiak to seek new business opportunities that use Kodiak’s technology and provide fleet management services for customers in Asia.
SK’s network of companies has deep roots in numerous industries critical to the future of logistics, from trucking telematics to shipping to semiconductors. Kodiak will look to leverage SK’s products, components, and technology for its autonomous system, including artificial intelligence microprocessors and advanced emergency braking systems.
“Our partnership with Kodiak will help accelerate the commercialization of self-driving trucks in Asia,” said Jungho Shin, Executive Vice President of SK Inc. “Kodiak’s industry-leading technology and SK’s unrivaled reach in Korea and across Asia make this a natural partnership.”
The partnership marks a significant milestone for Kodiak as it works towards international expansion. Asia represents a $1.5 trillion freight market, making this a key opportunity for Kodiak’s international operations.
