PepsiCo and Gatik recently announced a multi-year strategic partnership to bring autonomous freight into PepsiCo’s North America food and beverage supply chain, marking the largest commercial autonomous freight deployment to date. Gatik is already operating for PepsiCo across Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas.
PepsiCo made the announcement official via news release this week.
“PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than 1 billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide,” the release stated. “For PepsiCo, the partnership strengthens its supply chain network that makes and moves its food and beverage products across the United States every day. It provides a practical way to improve delivery consistency, add capacity, and support customer service across a complex, high-volume operation. It also marks a major commercial milestone for Gatik, which is now delivering autonomous freight at commercial scale inside one of the world’s largest and most demanding consumer goods supply chains.”
“Serving our vast network of customers requires a supply chain that is safe, reliable, and built for the future,” said Jim Farrell, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain, PepsiCo. “Gatik is already operating inside our networks and brings the autonomous freight technology, commercial experience, and scale we need to strengthen service, add capacity, and move products more consistently for our customers.”
The partnership is focused on PepsiCo’s regional transportation networks, where products move daily from site to site. These networks are high-frequency, time-sensitive, and essential to keeping products flowing consistently, PepsiCo stated.
“Autonomous trucking has reached commercial scale when it operates inside one of the most demanding supply chains on the planet,” said Gautam Narang, CEO and Co-Founder of Gatik. “That is what Gatik is doing with PepsiCo. Our autonomous trucks are already moving products every day across Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas, and this partnership is proof that Gatik is becoming central to how the world’s largest companies move goods.”
Gatik’s autonomous trucks are designed for end-to-end deliveries across highways and surface streets, with dynamic route orchestration capabilities built for complex regional logistics networks spanning hundreds of pickup and drop-off locations. This enables PepsiCo to modify route plans in response to daily operational needs, including adding or removing stops, responding to shifts in demand, and adapting to activity levels across distribution centers. That flexibility helps PepsiCo reduce variability, improve on-time performance, and add capacity without requiring major changes to its existing operations.
Gatik’s first deployment with PepsiCo was in 2022 and today, Gatik operates with more than 98% on-time delivery across its operations today. This agreement builds on PepsiCo’s experience running one of North America’s largest private fleets and brings Gatik’s autonomous freight capabilities into real, day-to-day supply chain operations.
“PepsiCo’s approach is grounded in responsible workforce planning and continued investment in its people,” the release stated. “PepsiCo and Gatik are focused on adding capacity where it’s needed most: high-demand regional networks that are hard to staff and critical to keeping shelves stocked for consumers. Ultimately, it is about supporting PepsiCo’s frontline teams with greater flexibility, consistency, and reliability across the transportation network—and ensuring PepsiCo’s people grow with the future of the business.”
Bruce Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has lived in three states including Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia. During his nearly 20-year career, Bruce has served as managing editor and sports editor for numerous publications. He and his wife, Dana, who is also a journalist, are based in Carrollton, Georgia.
