Kodiak Robotics plans to incorporate autonomous driving capabilities into an electric tractor for its fleet in 2024.

“Customers have been long asking for an autonomous electric vehicle and we are delivering on that need,” said Don Burnette, co-founder and CEO of Kodiak.

The Peterbilt Model 579EV has a range of up to 150 miles, and is designed for short-haul and drayage uses.

EVs are generally considered to be a better fit for autonomous driving than legacy vehicles. “We want to show them with this vehicle that [EVs and Avs] go together,” Chief Technology Officer Andreas Wendel told Transport Dive.

Kodiak points out that EVs are more agile and easier to maintain than diesel trucks, and that a diesel truck with autonomous technology would need to be modeled with a certain degree of uncertainty over gear shifting timing.

Kodiak isn’t alone in the AV truck space. Terraline (formerly Solo Advanced Technologies), is developing an autonomous electric Class 8 truck called the SD1, and demonstrated its technology on a racetrack last year. In 2019, Volvo Trucks announced plans to test an autonomous drayage truck.

Source: Transport Dive