Kodiak AI is moving autonomous trucking onto cross-border trade lanes, where steady, high-volume flows reward predictable timing
Kodiak AI has started autonomous freight runs for cross-border carrier Charger USA on a 435-mile (700km) lane from Dallas to Laredo, Texas, its first route to the busiest US commercial land port. Trucks fitted with the Kodiak Driver carry refrigerated and dry goods with a safety driver aboard until Kodiak completes its safety case.
The first delivery ran on 8 September 2026. Laredo handled more than US$350bn of trade in 2025, close to 40% of US commerce with Mexico, and steady replenishment flows of consumer goods and food suit the predictable timings and long hours of autonomous trucks.
“Autonomy lets us build a network that serves both our customers and our drivers,” Andy Khera, President of Charger USA, said. “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, an asset-based carrier with temperature-controlled freight among its core lines, plans to fit the Kodiak Driver to its own trucks and add lanes. That fits Kodiak’s driver-as-a-service model, in which customers own the vehicles, as in the Permian Basin, where it has run driverless since December 2024.
Long-haul driverless service is due by the end of 2026. Kodiak says its long-haul safety case was 96% complete at the end of September, based on claims and evidence materially finished.
Source: Kodiak AI
Source: www.automotiveworld.com
