Autonomous pickup truck could enhance U.S. military operations

Kodiak Robotics unveiled in late 2023 its first autonomous test vehicle for the U.S. Department of Defense. A Ford F-150 pickup truck is outfitted with Kodiak's autonomous system, Kodiak Driver. It is designed to handle complex military environments, diverse operational conditions, and areas with degraded GPS, as well as off-road variables like rocks, dust, mud, and water. The F-150 can be teleoperated if needed.

Since its founding in 2018, Kodiak has primarily focused on developing autonomous trucks. But the road to scaling autonomous vehicles has turned out to be longer than many expected.

Working with the military could be a quicker path to revenue for Kodiak, which won a two-year, $50 million contract with the Army in December 2022.

Kodiak said it took less than six months to build the autonomous Ford F-150. If all goes well for Kodiak, it could become one of the Army’s future technology partners.

The autonomous pickup truck introduces new possibilities for enhancing military logistics and operations. Unmanned transportation of supplies and personnel offers the military greater flexibility, efficiency, and safety in fulfilling its mission-critical objectives.

This work also highlights the importance of a modular, vehicle agnostic autonomous driving system. The F-150 runs the same software as Kodiak's autonomous long-haul trucks and features Kodiak DefensePods, an adapted version of Kodiak's swappable SensorPods.

Kodiak Robotics said finding multiple use cases for its autonomous driving system is key to its future. “Finding applications of technology that can apply to military use simultaneously with civilian and commercial use cases is the future," it said. "That’s where the efficiency is. That’s where the iteration is.”

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