This year is shaping up to be a big year for self-driving trucks. In addition to Aurora’s plans to expand hundreds of autonomous big rigs and Waabi into robotics, you also have Kodiak AI It aims to start its own fully driverless long-haul freight operation by the end of 2026. While robotics may still grab all the headlines, driverless trucks are slowly but surely making their way.

But in a recent interview, Kodiak AI CEO Don Burnett said deploying autonomous trucks is really only half the battle. He said that while most of its competitors are fussing over details like AI, perception, and mileage milestones, Kodiak is planning for the reality of running the business. This includes answering important questions such as who owns the trucks, how much uptime will be required, and what is ultimately shipped.

“So you start to realize pretty quickly that the truck isn’t the only one operating safely on the road…it’s the bull on the table,” Burnett said. “What really matters to customers is how efficiently and effectively I can get that truck in and out of my operation … and everything in between. And nobody talks about that.”

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-propelled trucks for highway and industrial use. as well as the defense industry. In 2025, the company’s trucks begin driverless deliveries. Atlas Energy Solutions in the oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and Eastern New MexicoAnd now there are 20 driverless trucks operating there. Kodiak AI went public in September 2025 through a reverse SPAC merger.

And now the company is finally ready for the open road. Burnett said Kodiak operates in multiple verticals with an emphasis on industrial and off-road trucking, which he sees as a significant opportunity compared to traditional on-road autonomous vehicles. He describes these environments as “unstructured” because they are more complex and unpredictable. As such, he says his trucks are better prepared for more “structured” environments like highways.

“We plan to have the driver pulled by the end of the year,” Burnett said. “Remember that a product isn’t valuable until it’s driverless.”

But first, Kodiak needs to complete its protective case. This includes extensive data collection, virtually driving a vehicle in a simulated world, and creating a detailed plan to mitigate risk. Burnett said his team’s background at Waymo helped inspire its tough approach to safety.

Kodiak is also taking a different approach to its business model than some other companies. Unlike competitors who expected OEMs to provide autonomous ready trucks, Burnett said Kodiak is developing an aftermarket solution in partnership with companies. Roush Industries And Boschwhich allows them to build fully compatible, automotive-grade trucks and scale more efficiently as the technology evolves. As such, the 20 trucks that Kodiak has delivered so far are not owned and operated by Kodiak itself, but by its customers.

This is where the Kodiaq differs from its peers and even the Vimo. Burnett says that when a customer owns a vehicle, they are always concerned with key metrics such as usage, uptime, maintenance, and revenue. They say it creates a high bar for reliability and operational efficiency.

“When a customer owns a vehicle, it has to work,” Burnett said. “Customers expect the truck to work all the time. So you have to hit that bar before you can actually sell the truck to the customer.”

When autonomous vehicle developers own the truck instead of the customer, they can manage their deployments without worrying about real-world functionality.

“They have their own trucks,” he says of his competitors. “So if they only work one day a week, or they only work five hours a day, nobody cares … they’re still driverless and they still claim a win. But it’s never going to work with a customer. Like it’s not a real product.”

Burnett can be blunt when talking about his rivals. Asked if Kodiak would expand its product portfolio to include robotics, as Wabi recently did, he replied, “Was there a product before Wabi existed?” He believes Kodiak is ahead of its competitors in terms of real-world deployment and operational rigor. He suggests that many autonomous vehicle companies emphasize impressive technology and visuals, but haven’t crossed the threshold of delivering usable, customer-owned products:

“They make great videos,” he says of his competitors.

He maintains that most companies haven’t addressed 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 pickup and drop-off, and providing monitoring and communication tools. Ignoring complete system integration, the rest of the pack focuses on driving performance. Kodiak AI is doing both.

“Nobody talks about it,” he says.