PrePass, Kodiak Connect Driverless Trucks to Roadside Enforcement
The system will allow enforcement agencies to verify Enhanced Inspection information and decide whether Kodiak’s autonomous trucks can bypass roadside screening sites.
What happens when an autonomous truck approaches a weigh station? Kodiak and PrePass are working on that question.
HDT Graphic
PrePass and Kodiak AI are connecting driverless trucks with existing roadside enforcement systems, starting in Texas and Louisiana.
The companies have developed an automated process that sends inspection information from Kodiak’s autonomous trucks through the PrePass platform. Enforcement personnel can verify the information, authorize a truck to bypass a screening location, or issue additional instructions.
The collaboration is intended to address a practical challenge facing driverless trucking: how autonomous commercial vehicles will interact with weigh stations, inspection sites and enforcement agencies as they travel across state lines.
Under the program, a CVSA-trained inspector confirms that an autonomous truck is free of safety defects before it begins operating without a driver.
Kodiak
“The next barrier to scaling driverless trucking isn’t inside the truck. It’s the infrastructure around it,” said Chas Wurster, chief technology officer of PrePass.
Wurster said PrePass has been preparing for autonomous trucking through federal research, work with state agencies and investments in roadside screening technology.
How Enhanced Inspections Work
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance developed its Enhanced Commercial Motor Vehicle Inspection Program for commercial vehicles equipped with automated driving systems.
Under the program, a CVSA-trained inspector confirms that an autonomous truck is free of safety defects before it begins operating without a driver. A successful Enhanced Inspection may remain valid for up to 24 hours, subject to the program’s requirements.
The collaboration does not replace or change that inspection. Instead, it makes the inspection information available to enforcement agencies through roadside screening systems they already use.
That could allow states to incorporate autonomous trucks into existing enforcement operations without establishing a separate roadside process for the vehicles.
Kodiak Prepares for Driverless Highway Operations
Kodiak said the integration will support its plans to begin driverless commercial operations on public highways by the end of 2026.
“Launching driverless service is not just about building technology. It’s about building a solution that works in the real world,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak AI.
Burnette said the PrePass connection will allow Kodiak to provide enforcement agencies with necessary information, comply with safety requirements, and eventually expand its driverless operations across the country.
PrePass provides weigh-station bypass, toll payment and compliance services to commercial fleets. Its network includes more than 580 inspection and screening locations nationwide.
The companies said using that existing network could provide a foundation for expanding the system beyond Texas and Louisiana as autonomous truck operations grow.
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