January 5, 2026 - Kodiak Teams Up With Bosch

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for  January 5, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry. 

Kodiak AI is one of two companies currently operating driverless tractor-trailers in the U.S., with the other being Aurora. Last May, Aurora launched driverless over-the-road long-haul freight operations in Texas. While Kodiak and several other companies are also testing automated trucks across the American south, Kodiak was the first to actually sell automated trucks to a customer, Atlas Energy, which began hauling fracking sand in the Permian Basin in July 2024. Unlike the Aurora trucks that are being used for public highway operations, the Kodiak driver-equipped trucks for Atlas are running on private roads in oil and gas fields.

Kodiak has a somewhat unique approach from most of its competitors in that it has chosen not to partner with any specific truck manufacturers. Instead, it has developed an automated driving kit that can be installed on most trucks. The kit consists of the compute platform and sensor pods installed on the doors. The pods integrate cameras, radar, and lidar sensors into the side mirror housing and can be easily removed and replaced for off-line servicing. This strategy provides fleets with the flexibility to select truck brands of their choice, even if that company isn't building an AV-ready model.

However, those trucks may not have all the necessary redundant systems for safety in an AV. Today at CES in Las Vegas, Kodiak and Bosch announced a partnership for the supplier to provide redundant systems, such as steering and braking, to ensure the safety of a Kodiak-powered automated truck if a safety-critical system has a failure. Details of how the two companies will implement this aren't yet available, but we should be learning more in the near future. Retrofitting new brakes or steering systems to an existing truck won't be a trivial task, but then putting in the Kodiak driver kit will require specialized installation as well.

Thanks for listening.