Kodiak AI has chosen the Dallas–Houston corridor for its first driverless highway freight service, which it plans to launch by the end of 2026.

For now, a safety observer remains in the cab. But Kodiak says its trucks have been completing deliveries between its Lancaster, Texas, hub and Houston without the observer taking control, including on the surface streets at either end of the Interstate 45 route.

The 219-mile lane is familiar ground for Kodiak. Since 2019, it has hauled freight between Dallas and Houston with safety drivers aboard, logging more than 3.5 million autonomous miles on the route, according to the company.

Getting Ready for Driverless Operations

Kodiak began daily preparation runs using its planned driverless hardware and software in August. It is also testing without a driver at closed-course tracks, where it can put the truck through situations that would be too risky or too rare to test on public roads.

Those runs are part of the company’s effort to finish its "safety case": the evidence it uses to support operating without anyone in the cab on a defined route. As of the end of August, Kodiak said 93% of the claims and evidence in its long-haul safety case were materially complete. That is Kodiak’s own measure of its progress, not an independent safety rating.

Kodiak already operates trucks without anyone in the cab for Atlas Energy Solutions in the Permian Basin. That operation began in December 2024. As of June 30, Kodiak’s system had been installed in 35 Atlas-owned trucks and had logged more than 40,000 hours of paid driverless operations. The Dallas–Houston launch would extend those operations to a major interstate freight lane.