- Located in Villa Rica, Georgia, the truckport will serve as a launching and landing point for Kodiak’s autonomous trucks in the Atlanta area.
- The Pilot-owned facility will be a transfer hub for manual first- and last-mile deliveries and will be used to conduct maintenance, refueling and enhanced inspections specifically for self-driving trucks.
- The truckport is Georgia’s first autonomous truck terminal and will serve as the country’s easternmost terminal.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Kodiak Robotics, Inc., a leading self-driving trucking company, and Pilot Company, the largest operator of travel centers in North America, today announced the opening of their inaugural truckport. The facility, located at the Pilot travel center in Villa Rica, Georgia, will be used by Kodiak to launch and land autonomous trucks and will serve as a convenient hub for drivers to pick up and drop off first- and last-mile deliveries. The Villa Rica truckport will support Kodiak’s 18,000-mile-long autonomous deployment network, the industry’s largest and most robust set of mapped routes for self-driving trucks.
“Partnering with Pilot Company to build the Villa Rica truckport ensures that we have access to the truckport services we need, utilizing Pilot’s industry-leading travel center network,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak Robotics. “This partnership, combined with Kodiak’s flexible technology stack, enables our scalable, asset-light approach to building our truckport network. The freight lane between Dallas and Atlanta is critical to the nation’s supply chain and economy, and this truckport enables us to refine our operations model as we continue to grow.”
The new truckport in Villa Rica, Georgia will serve as an eastern satellite hub for Kodiak’s network, while the company’s Dallas-Fort Worth hub will continue to serve as the main terminal for its autonomous truck fleet. It also serves as a model for future Kodiak truckports, which are designed to be highly scalable due to lean infrastructure requirements. Additional comprehensive services at the truckport will include refueling at the Pilot Travel Center, light maintenance, and pre-trip inspections, including Enhanced Inspections specifically designed for self-driving trucks.
Pilot Company is continuously evaluating ways to enhance its travel centers to meet the evolving needs of the industry. The Villa Rica truckport demonstrates Pilot Company’s commitment to providing best-in-class service to its customers today and in the future.
“Pilot Company rigorously tests ways to integrate new technologies, including autonomous trucks, to maintain our safety-first focus and continue fueling the trucking industry,” said Brandon Trama, director of strategy and business development at Pilot Company. “Working with Kodiak aligns with our emphasis on improving the quality of life for professional drivers. Autonomous trucks focus on the long, repeatable highway miles, leaving the more enticing local, first- and last-mile deliveries for professional drivers who can stay closer to home.”
In August 2022, Pilot Company announced that it had made a strategic investment in Kodiak and joined its Board of Directors. Kodiak and Pilot are exploring further expansion within Pilot’s national travel center network. The opening of the Pilot Villa Rica truckport follows Kodiak’s recent partnership announcements with Loadsmith, C.R. England and Tyson, IKEA, Werner, Forward and more.
For more information about Kodiak, please visit https://kodiak.ai.
About Kodiak Robotics, Inc.
Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in 2018 to develop autonomous technology that carries freight forward — so people, partners, and the planet thrive. The company is developing an industry-leading technology stack purpose-built for long-haul trucks, making the freight industry safer and more efficient. Kodiak’s unique modular hardware approach integrates sensors into a streamlined sensor-pod structure that optimizes for perception, scalability, and maintainability. The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the South, operating autonomously on the highway portions of the routes. Kodiak also leverages its commercial self-driving software to develop, test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense. Learn more about Kodiak on the web at kodiak.ai, and on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can find the company press kit HERE.
About Pilot Company
Pilot Travel Centers LLC (“Pilot Company”) keeps North America’s drivers moving as one of the leading suppliers of fuel and the largest operator of travel centers. Founded in 1958 and headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pilot Company has grown its travel center network to more than 870 locations serving an average of 1.3 million guests per day and providing over 70,000 fleet customers with solutions for fuel, credit, factoring, services and rewards. Pilot Company has the third largest tanker fleet in North America with over 1,500 trucks that supply approximately 14 billion gallons of fuel per year and provide hauling and disposal services to the oil field sector. As a fuel and energy leader, Pilot Company is the largest provider of biodiesel and renewable fuels in the U.S. and is developing a coast-to-coast EV charging network. The company’s Pilot and Flying J travel center network includes over 750 locations in 44 states and six Canadian provinces with more than 790 restaurants, 77,000 truck parking spaces, 5,500 deluxe showers, 6,300 diesel lanes and truck maintenance and tire service with Southern Tire Mart at Pilot Flying J. Its One9 Fuel Network provides smaller fleets and independent professional drivers with a variety of fueling locations that offer everyday value, convenience, credit and perks. More information on locations and rewards is available in the myRewards Plus app.
Pilot Company is a majority owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. For additional information about Pilot Company, its 30,000 team members and commitment to giving back, visit www.pilotcompany.com.
SOURCE Pilot Company
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