MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and DALLAS, Texas — Kodiak AI and Charger USA are announcing a collaboration for autonomous freight delivery in Texas
Through this collaboration, trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver, Kodiak’s autonomous driving system, are hauling refrigerated and dry freight for consumer packaged goods and food and beverage customers on the 435-mile lane between Charger’s terminals in Dallas and Laredo, Texas. Kodiak and Charger completed their first delivery on Sept. 8.
“Today, the companies are operating with a safety driver behind the wheel,” Kodiak said. “The companies intend to transition the lane to driverless operations once Kodiak completes its safety case. A safety case is a structured, evidence-backed argument that the Kodiak Driver is acceptably safe to operate in a specific domain.”
First Laredo Route
This collaboration marks Kodiak’s first route serving Laredo, the highest-volume commercial land port of entry in the United States. The Port of Laredo handled over $350 billion in international trade in 2025, amounting to nearly 40% of all United States trade with Mexico. Consumer packaged goods and food and beverage shipments move in steady, high-volume flows tied to retail replenishment schedules, making the predictable transit times and extended operating hours of autonomous trucks especially valuable.
Serving Customers and Drivers
“Autonomy lets us build a network that serves both our customers and our drivers,” said Andy Khera, president, Charger USA. “Combining our in-house TMS, managed transportation, and the Kodiak Driver creates a nearly fully automated ecosystem that gives our customers long-term capacity continuity through changing labor markets and freight demand, while bringing our drivers home every night.”
Charger operates across North America as an asset-based carrier, with temperature-controlled transport freight among its core service lines. The companies expect to expand the collaboration to additional lanes in Charger’s network over time as Charger integrates the Kodiak Driver into its own fleet.
Strong CollaborationÂ
“Charger came to us knowing what they wanted from autonomy and what they need to see before scaling it,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO, Kodiak. “That clarity makes for a strong collaboration. The Dallas–Laredo lane extends the Kodiak Driver into a new corridor, and gives both companies the operating foundation we need to scale driverless service.”
Kodiak commercializes its technology through a Driver-as-a-Service model, where the company deploys the Kodiak Driver on trucks owned and operated by its customers. Kodiak’s driverless technology has been deployed in commercial service in the Permian Basin since December 2024, where customer-owned trucks operate with no one in the cab.
Kodiak plans to launch long-haul driverless service by the end of 2026. The company’s long-haul Autonomy Readiness Measure, which measures the percentage of claims and evidence in Kodiak’s safety case that are materially complete, reached 96% at the end of September 2026.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
