"Burnette's Kodiak is an autonomous trucking company that currently has eight driverless trucks deployed in the Permian Basin, transporting loads of sand used for hydraulic fracking. Urtasun's Waabi is another driverless trucking venture that plans to put fully autonomous trucks on the roads by the end of this year through a partnership with Volvo. Ferguson's Nuro will soon compete with Waymo once it deploys robotaxis with Uber in 2026."
"All three CEOs agree: Autonomous driving is proven technology. For them, whether it works or not is no longer subject to debate. "Everyone focuses on the technology. I would say 99% of the focus is on technology," Burnette, the Kodiak CEO, said. "But we're really past the point where the technology is the question mark. Now, the question is path to profitability, gross margin positive, scale, those types of things.""
Three CEOs leading driverless vehicle companies—Don Burnette (Kodiak), Dave Ferguson (Nuro), and Raquel Urtasun (Waabi)—have nearly five decades of combined autonomy experience. Kodiak operates eight driverless trucks in the Permian Basin hauling sand for hydraulic fracking. Waabi plans to deploy fully autonomous trucks with Volvo by year-end. Nuro aims to field robotaxis with Uber in 2026. The CEOs state that autonomous driving technology is largely proven. Remaining barriers focus on commercial viability: profitability, gross margins, scaling, regulatory and operational constraints, and technical edge cases such as adverse weather conditions like snow.
Read at Business Insider
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