Gatik’s Gautam Narang on the importance of knowing your customer

Whereas most companies are either trying to scale robotaxis or commercialize long-haul self-driving with Class 8 trucks, Gatik is more focused on smaller box trucks and middle-mile logistics. Gatik CEO and co-founder Gautam Narang said there are two main reasons behind this go-to-market strategy. We sat down with Narang to learn more about why Gatik doesn’t do free pilots or accept short-term partnerships, the importance of knowing your customer and what investors are looking for in today’s funding environment. Matching the customer needs to what was possible from a technology standpoint is how we started the company. And the best part about this mid-mile was we had to operate the trucks back and forth on fixed and repeatable routes.