Kodiak starts driver-in freight pilot from Fresno to Los Angeles

Kodiak starts driver-in freight pilot from Fresno to Los Angeles

24 September 2026: Kodiak has started hauling perishable freight for DTL Transport between Fresno and a Los Angeles distribution centre, the first pilot under California's new rules for heavy-duty autonomous trucks. The pilot began on 22 September, and a human safety driver stays behind the wheel throughout this phase.

California opens its roads to heavy trucks

On 28 April 2026 the California Department of Motor Vehicles approved regulations that allow heavy-duty autonomous trucks on public roads for the first time. Kodiak received its Heavy-duty Autonomous Vehicle Testing permit on 13 August.

That permit is the first step in a phased path with three stages: driver-in testing, driver-out testing, and driver-out deployment. The Fresno pilot sits in the first stage. The DMV's own autonomous vehicle page describes its permits in the same three categories, testing with a safety driver, driverless testing and deployment, each with approved locations, operating conditions and speed limits, and says manufacturers must report every collision that causes property damage, injury or death.

The run itself

The route covers about 225 miles, mostly on State Route 99 and Interstate 5, and the freight is time-sensitive, perishable goods. The companies expect to learn how autonomy may affect transit times, shipping costs and produce shelf life. DTL sees autonomy as a way to add capacity when demand exceeds its fleet.

Don Burnette, Kodiak's founder and chief executive, said that "California's comprehensive autonomous vehicle regulations" matter for freight innovation in the company's home state. Trelynd Bradley, deputy director of innovation and emerging technologies at the state's business office GO-Biz, said: "This pilot highlights the potential for autonomous trucking to be another tool to strengthen California supply chains."

The carrier

DTL Transport is based in Fresno and has operated for more than 36 years. It provides dry and refrigerated full truckload service with a fleet of more than 100 trucks, serving grocery chains, meat processors and produce customers. Lucky Dosanjh, a second-generation owner, is its chief executive, and his son Jovan heads dispatch as the third generation. It runs a 7-acre gated yard for truck parking and equipment storage.

The Texas lane Kodiak is preparing

Kodiak AI trades on Nasdaq as KDK and is based in Mountain View, California. It plans driverless operations on public highways in Texas by the end of 2026. On 25 September it named Dallas-Houston as its launch lane: 219 miles on Interstate 45, a route it has hauled with safety drivers since 2019 and where it has driven more than 3.5 million autonomous miles. Kodiak says it now completes deliveries between its hub in Lancaster, Texas, and Houston without human intervention, and that the safety observer never touched the wheel.

Kodiak tracks an Autonomy Readiness Measure, the share of claims and evidence in its driverless safety case that are materially complete. It stood at 84% in February, 86% in April, 91% in July, 93% in August and 96% at the end of September. Remaining work includes the long-haul risk assessment and verifying the launch vehicle configuration.

IKEA is the launch shipper. After four years of partnership the two have delivered more than 1,300 loads and logged more than 750,000 miles with a safety observer aboard. The driver-out leg is 219 miles between Kodiak's Houston and Dallas-area facilities, within an established route of 292 miles from IKEA's Baytown distribution centre to its Frisco store.

Driverless trucks already in service

Since December 2024 Kodiak has worked with Atlas Energy Solutions in the Permian Basin, which Kodiak says made it the first company to deploy driverless technology in customer-owned-and-operated trucks. As of the end of the second quarter of 2026 it had 35 driverless Atlas trucks with no one in the cab, and by 30 June they had logged more than 40,000 cumulative hours of paid driverless operation.

Related on TrustList:

• Aurora aims for 30,000 driverless trucks by 2030 and shows its plan
• Aurora and McLane move refrigerated food freight to driverless trucks
• Oxa and Dubai Future Foundation form autonomous logistics venture

Sources

• Kodiak AI: Kodiak and DTL haul freight in California, 24 September 2026
• Kodiak AI: Kodiak names Dallas-Houston driverless launch lane, 25 September 2026
• Kodiak AI: On track for year-end driverless long-haul launch, autonomy readiness 96%, 6 October 2026
• Kodiak AI: Kodiak and IKEA, launching driverless service in 2026, 29 September 2026