Autonomous Trucks
Kodiak Robotics, Pilot open 1st autonomous truckport(Image: Kodiak Robotics Inc./Pilot Co.)On Thursday, self-driving trucking company Kodiak Robotics and Pilot Co. opened their first truckport for autonomous vehicles at the Pilot Travel Center in Villa Rica, Georgia. This location will support the Kodiak autonomous freight lane between Dallas and Atlanta and will complement the company’s Dallas-Fort Worth hub, which is the main terminal. For Kodiak Robotics, partnerships for infrastructure is the go-to strategy while it develops the technology. The report highlighted publicly traded for-hire truckload fleets reduced their overall tractor counts by around 3% in the first half of 2023. As soon as a barrel available today is put in inventory, its value declines in a market backwardation.” For carriers exposed to these higher fuel prices, backwardation might also apply to their shrinking operating margins.