Kodiak AI signed a binding commercial agreement with Fresno-based carrier DTL Transport on October 28, 2026, establishing the first paid public-highway contract for its Kodiak driverless trucks. DTL will own and operate 75 trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver and pay a per-mile fee for the technology, with delivery scheduled to begin in 2028. The agreement gives Kodiak an important customer for its asset-light strategy, but the trucks cannot operate without drivers until the company closes its remaining safety work and satisfies regulatory requirements.
The deal is more than a fleet order because it tests whether autonomous trucking can become a repeatable software business rather than a capital-intensive carrier operation. Kodiak will license its driver system while DTL retains responsibility for the equipment, dispatch, maintenance and freight. That structure could produce recurring revenue without requiring Kodiak to own every truck, although the contract does not disclose its duration, price or schedule for removing safety operators.
Kodiak driverless trucks move from pilot to commercial highway deal
DTL and Kodiak developed their relationship during a September pilot in which the Kodiak Driver moved perishable goods roughly 225 miles between Fresno and Los Angeles. The trip covered Interstate 5 and California State Route 99, with a human safety operator in the cab as required by the testing permit granted by the California Department of Motor Vehicles in August. Kodiak said the run represented the first commercial cargo autonomously transported by a Class 8 truck in California.
The new agreement converts that controlled demonstration into a fleet program. DTL plans to deploy the trucks across several interstate routes, beginning with Dallas to El Paso and Interstate 20 between Dallas and Atlanta. Both corridors have already been tested and operated by Kodiak, reducing the distance between a successful pilot and a broad commercial deployment.
Kodiak began hauling Forward Air freight on the Atlanta lane in 2023 using pairs of safety drivers. Those teams are important for time-sensitive trucking because federal hours-of-service rules limit a property-carrying driver to 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window after 10 consecutive hours off duty. A two-driver team can keep a truck moving for longer, but it also adds labor expense. Kodiak says DTL could use driverless vehicles to extend operating hours beyond those limits, although the announcement did not say if the autonomous trucks will replace existing teams.
That distinction matters for judging the program. Driverless operation might add usable capacity without immediately eliminating a human job. It could also change staffing demands, dispatch practices and customer scheduling once fully deployed. DTL president and chief executive Lucky Dosanjh said the technology could complement its workforce while expanding capacity, improving safety and supporting further innovation.
A carrier partnership validates Kodiak’s software model
Kodiak has operated other freight under a trucking-as-a-service arrangement in which the company owns and runs the autonomous vehicles. Charger USA, Roehl Transport and Werner Enterprises are among the customers associated with that model on a small group of Texas routes. Chief executive Don Burnette described those activities as still in the pilot stage.
The DTL agreement is designed to move Kodiak toward driver-as-a-service, in which a carrier owns the vehicle and licenses the autonomous system. It is also a meaningful distinction from Atlas Energy Solutions, Kodiak’s first customer under a binding commercial agreement. Atlas has operated customer-owned Kodiak driverless trucks in the remote Permian Basin of West Texas, where controlled off-road work differs from mixed traffic, construction zones, weather and unpredictable behavior on public highways.
Burnette argues that midmarket carriers such as DTL can adopt new technology more quickly than large fleets because they are generally smaller and can make fleet decisions with less organizational friction. DTL, a family-run company with more than 36 years in dry and refrigerated freight, operates more than 100 trucks. Its existing routes and grocery-focused customer base provide a practical setting for testing how autonomy fits into daily operations.
The partnership also offers Kodiak a benchmark for potential customers that do not want to become trucking operators. If the DTL deployment works, other carriers may be more willing to buy trucks, install Kodiak’s system and pay per mile. That would support the company’s ambition to become an asset-light technology supplier, a strategy also pursued by Aurora Innovation. The key advantage is capital efficiency. Kodiak does not need to purchase a large truck fleet and cover its operating costs before generating revenue from freight movements.
Revenue potential is meaningful but not yet secured
Kodiak did not disclose the rate or total value of the DTL contract, so the revenue cannot be stated as a confirmed figure. Its 2025 investor presentation provides a useful estimate. The company forecast annual recurring revenue of 150,000 to 190,000 dollars per truck, based partly on a licensing fee of about 0.97 dollars per mile and projected annual mileage of about 225,000 miles per vehicle.
If those assumptions hold and all 75 trucks enter service, the program could produce at least roughly 11.2 million dollars in annual recurring revenue. That figure is a projection rather than disclosed contract value. Actual results will depend on fleet utilization, routes, mileage, the negotiated fee and the timing of deployment. It also does not include the costs of installing and maintaining the system, which could affect the overall economics.
Against that potential, Kodiak’s financial position remains demanding. The company reported second-quarter revenue of 3.5 million dollars, up from 503,000 dollars a year earlier, and an operating loss of 43.7 million dollars. It ended June with 151.1 million dollars in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Third-quarter results are scheduled for November 5, and investors will likely focus on cash use, the path toward sustained profitability and evidence that new agreements are becoming commercial deployments rather than announced capacity.
Market confidence has been weak since Kodiak went public in September 2025. Its shares have fallen 87 percent from their opening-day price. The DTL agreement may improve sentiment because it adds a sizable customer in a core freight market, but the 2028 start means the contract will not provide immediate proof of broad revenue generation. Execution risk remains concentrated in the period between announcement and launch.
Safety readiness and timing are the decisive hurdles
Kodiak plans to remove human safety operators from the cab and begin driverless highway service in December, carrying IKEA freight on Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston. That planned launch will test the company’s ability to move from supervised operation to autonomous commercial service on a public highway. The company must still close its long-haul safety case before that service can proceed.
Kodiak’s Autonomy Readiness Measure reached 93 percent at the end of August, compared with 84 percent in February. That internal measure indicates progress, but a score of 93 percent does not mean the safety case is complete. Kodiak also needs the required approvals and operating conditions before driverless freight can run without a safety operator. The December target is therefore meaningful, but it remains contingent on technical and regulatory work rather than a finished nationwide network.
The DTL program adds further complexity because it requires more than one good highway run. A commercial fleet must handle dispatch, maintenance, charging or fueling, roadside events and disruptions across different routes and weather conditions. Remote assistance could become part of the operating model, but Kodiak has not said how it would staff or price that support. DTL also must integrate autonomous vehicles with its broader fleet and determine how freight handoffs work at terminals and customer locations.
As of June 30, 35 customer-owned Kodiak driverless trucks were serving Atlas in the Permian Basin, and the company expects that fleet to reach 100 trucks by mid-2027. That expansion provides useful operating data, although it is concentrated in off-highway environments and cannot substitute for public-road evidence.
What to watch before the 2028 deployment
Progress will be measured in stages. The first test is Kodiak’s December driverless launch between Dallas and Houston. Investors and carriers will want evidence that the system can operate without a safety operator, handle real freight and maintain acceptable service performance. The next milestones involve DTL receiving its first trucks, beginning supervised highway operation and then transitioning the vehicles into commercial service.
Terms that remain unknown include the per-mile fee, contract duration, unit delivery schedule, staffing requirements and the date when the first DTL truck will run without a driver. DTL has not confirmed that the autonomous trucks will replace team drivers on the two initial lanes. Kodiak has also not confirmed the projected revenue from the 75-truck agreement. Whether Kodiak can close the safety case and start driverless service on public roads will decide what the Kodiak driverless trucks contract is actually worth, and the delivery date in 2028 is a long way out.
Even so, the contract gives Kodiak a credible path to prove that its technology can work on public highways and that carriers can operate it within their existing businesses. The DTL relationship started with a California pilot and now extends to familiar Texas corridors, creating a practical progression from supervised freight movement to a larger commercial fleet. The remaining question is whether the safety case, regulatory clearance and operating execution can arrive on schedule. For now, Kodiak driverless trucks have a binding customer and a 2028 delivery target, but the decisive work of turning that agreement into fully driverless interstate service still lies ahead.