Kodiak expands driverless trucking beyond Sun Belt to Ohio and Indiana
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International, PlusAI and Ryder launch autonomous trial on Texas lane
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International, PlusAI and Ryder have moved autonomous trucking from the test track to live freight operations, running real shipper cargo on the Temple-to-Laredo corridor — one of Texas’ more challenging routes and another clear signal that the technology is moving closer to commercial readiness.
The trial, which launched in November 2025, puts International LT series trucks powered by PlusAI’s SuperDrive 6.0 virtual driver software into Ryder’s supply chain. Early results are solid: 100% on-time delivery and roughly 92% autonomous route coverage, even on a long-haul lane known for heavy construction and tight hours-of-service windows.
Many autonomous developers have tested on the shorter Dallas-to-Houston run. This team deliberately chose a longer, more challenging lane.
“All the feedback we were hearing from fleets like Ryder is that this is a very difficult lane,” said Amisha Vadalia, who leads commercialization at PlusAI. “There is a lot of construction. It is quite long. In terms of staffing it can be difficult to get the right people with consistent hauls on that lane. It is a perfect demonstration of why autonomous technology is going to be beneficial for the industry.”
Seth deVlugt, who leads autonomous vehicle relationships at Ryder Ventures, stressed the trial’s real-world feel: “There is nothing manufactured at the beginning or the end. This is real freight that was there before, and it is moving with the same expectations as any other type of movement in a traditional sense.”
Read the full article here.
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Kodiak expands driverless trucking beyond Sun Belt to Ohio and Indiana
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Kodiak AI has completed its first autonomous trucking program outside the Sun Belt, partnering with DriveOhio to test driverless technology on Interstate 70—one of North America’s busiest freight corridors.
The program brought together the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to show how autonomous trucks can handle critical northern freight routes that underpin the U.S. supply chain.
“Our work with DriveOhio marks an important step toward scaling autonomous trucking nationwide,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak. “This program highlights not only the maturity of our technology, but also its ability to operate safely and effectively beyond the Sun Belt, in new environments that are critical to the U.S. supply chain.”
The demonstration expands Kodiak’s operational design domain beyond its Texas and southern highway testing into the Midwest. The company is now proving the Kodiak Driver can manage northern freight corridors essential to national logistics networks. Interstate 70 links major Midwest hubs and carries a significant share of cross-country freight volume, making it a key proving ground for broader adoption.
Read the full article here.
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EV Realty opens major truck charging hub in San Bernardino
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EV Realty opened its flagship multi-fleet truck charging hub in San Bernardino on Thursday, bringing 76 high-power charging ports and 9.9 MW of grid capacity online in one of the nation’s busiest freight corridors.
Carriers in the Inland Empire have struggled for years to find infrastructure capable of supporting commercial electrification at scale. This facility is built to change that. It can serve more than 200 medium- and heavy-duty trucks daily under EV Realty’s Powered Properties model, which aggregates multiple fleets onto shared charging infrastructure rather than forcing each carrier to build and maintain its own dedicated depot.
J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., Gate City Beverage (part of Harbor Distributing, a Reyes Holdings company) and fully electric carrier Nevoya have signed on as initial customers.
The site sits near the San Bernardino Intermodal Facility, amid more than 60 million square feet of industrial warehouse space and close to Interstate 10 and Interstate 215 — a critical artery for freight moving out of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The region is home to nearly 17,000 medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
Read the full article here.
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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ACT EXPO
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Connected vehicles, ADAS safety tech, autonomous advancements and software-defined vehicles drive innovation. Learn More.
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Autonomous vehicle manufacturers may soon self-certify the safety of freight trucks, despite FMCSA rules requiring third-party medical exams for human drivers, NACFE Director Rick Mihelic warns. He questions the double standard, citing software bugs, recalls and limited crash data as risks akin to driver health issues, and calls for independent oversight to protect trucking operations. (Commercial Carrier Journal)
A “system malfunction” left more than 100 Baidu robotaxis frozen in fast-moving Wuhan traffic on March 31, marking China’s first reported mass autonomous vehicle shutdown. Some passengers were stranded in the middle lanes of elevated ring roads, too afraid to exit with vehicles passing on both sides. No injuries were reported. (Associated Press)
The Technology & Maintenance Council will host an AI Summit at its 2026 Fall Meeting, Sept. 20-24 in Pittsburgh. Co-hosted with Transport Topics, the event targets fleet leaders navigating the shift from machine learning to full-scale AI adoption, with a focus on agentic AI’s potential for predictive maintenance. (Transport Topics)
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As always, thanks for watching and reading.
Thomas Wasson
twasson@firecrown.com
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