BMW i Ventures announced an investment in Kodiak Robotics, Inc., a leading developer of self-driving long-haul trucking technology. The funds from the BMW i Ventures investment help Kodiak expand its team and fleet, as well as continue to develop its industry-leading self-driving technology purpose-built for long-haul trucks.
Kodiak is led by a team of autonomous driving veterans who hail from Google’s original self-driving team, Uber, Lyft and more. The company delivers freight daily in Texas, and also tests in California. The Kodiak Driver incorporates numerous autonomous trucking-specific innovations including its groundbreaking light-weight mapping technology. These maps allow Kodiak to update route changes – like road construction – on the go without having to stop freight deliveries.
“The Kodiak Driver is one of the most advanced technology stacks in autonomous trucking, and has made tremendous strides towards driverless deployment,” said Kasper Sage, partner, BMW i Ventures. “Industry observers believe self-driving trucks will be one of the first commercially-viable applications of autonomous technology and we look forward to working with Kodiak in the coming years to put self-driving trucks on the road.”
Kodiak, which recently celebrated its third birthday, is building and operating self-driving trucks designed to operate on highway routes, making the freight industry safer and more efficient. Kodiak delivers freight daily for its customers between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, operating autonomously on the highway portion of the route. In January, Kodiak became the first company in the autonomous trucking industry to announce disengage-free customer deliveries.
“We are thrilled to partner with BMW i Ventures to accelerate the commercialization of Kodiak’s autonomous trucking technology,” said Don Burnette, Kodiak’s CEO. “BMW i Ventures is one of the leading investors in automotive technology and will be a perfect strategic partner for Kodiak.”
BMW i Ventures, BMW’s EUR 500 million venture capital fund, invests money and resources in startups in the fields of autonomous driving, digital car and automotive cloud, e-mobility, artificial Intelligence and data, industry 4.0, shared and on-demand mobility, customer digital life, and energy services.
BMW i Ventures has already entered into strategic partnerships with innovative providers such as Scoop, Zirx, RiceCell, Chargepoint, Life360, Moovit, JustPark, DSP Concepts, Chargemaster, Zendrive, Rever Moto, STRIVR, Desktop Metal, BUS.com, Proterra, Xometry, Caroobi, GaN Systems, Shift, May Mobility, Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, Vera, Mapillary, Claroty, Graphcore, Tekion, Yellowbrick Data, Recogni, Cartica AI, Trifacta, CelLink, GenXComm and many more.
