The self-guided trucks developed by Kodiak Robotics contain some remote DNA driving from Vay, a start-up car without a driver from Berlin.
The two companies, which announced a partnership on Wednesday, are working together since last year when Kodiak’s self-guiding self-guiding have begun to deliver without a guide to Atlas Energy solutions to the West Texas Permian Basin-rich oil and Eastern New Mexico.
And he will play a crucial operational and security, when Kodiak, who plans to be made public through a merger with the special purpose company, begins commercial traditions without drivers on public roads in Texas in the second half of 2026.
Remote driving, also called telecommunications, has been highlighted as a bridge technology for autonomous vehicles. Technology is often used to support sidewalk delivery robots, low -speed autonomous buses and even forklift forklifts. The rise of robbery has brought new attention – and the speculation of companies that use it – to technology.
Vay’s remote driving technology plays a supportive role in Kodiak’s autonomous driving system. The two technologies work together-each with their own unnecessary systems and protective messages-to allow a person to remotely control a Kodiak self-guiding truck in certain low-speed environments.
Vay’s telecommunications platform includes a steering wheel, screen, vehicle controls and software that allows a human driver – using low delay communication and is located in a remote location – to operate the Kodiak truck. However, Kodiak’s self-guiding system, and in particular the privately owned technology of “assisted autonomy”, still has control. This means that the underlying automated driving system is still active and sets limits on what the remote human driver can do if he begins to navigate the self-guiding truck at low speeds, through a construction zone or at a new fall point.
“It’s not an immediate system where you just turn the steering wheel and invert a truck,” said Kodiak Cto Andreas Wendel, who explained the Kodiak autonomous system still handles much of the driving. The remote driver, using the Vay platform, says in the vehicle where to go, but the Kodiak system still runs on all the checks to keep it on track.
“Why is it important?” Wendel asked. “Because we drive different different vehicles, from large semifinals to F-1550 to military vehicles, they have different loads and sometimes have a complete trailer. Sometimes a gap, sometimes without a trailer.
Kodiak employees, all who have a merchant driver licenses and are strict training, use the Vay system to operate the self-guiding truck in low speed scenarios, such as if the driver without a driver will encounter a complex construction zone by enforcing the law.
Wendel told TechCrunch that the company began investigating remote driving technology when a contract was renewed by the US military in 2022. He said the army needed a system that could turn to remote operators if needed.
“They face many cases of use where they cannot simply rely on the autonomy that do its thing,” he said, explaining that a military vehicle without a driver may have to suddenly change the course and hide behind the brush. “Getting your autonomy really understand that it’s very difficult,” he said.
Kodiak began building her own remote driving technology, but then found Vay, a company that had already developed its system in the real world.
The partnership is the last victory for Vay, a start that has made telecommunications technology the central part of the car exchange business.
Vay started as a driver -free car sharing company that developed remote driving technology that allows employees to sit in an office to pilot vacant vehicles to customers.
When a Vay vehicle arrives, the customer is resolved and undertakes manual control of the car. Customers lead to their destination. The Teleops driver is driving the vehicle back when the customer is finished. Vay, founded in 2019, has made more than 10,000 commercial trips.
Co -founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe sees the company extend beyond the service that sees consumers. And last September, the company began expanding its business model to commercial and business services.
“I often describe that it’s a bit like how Amazon built AWS on the back of Amazon’s success,” he said. “So we want to build this global remote driving platform.”
Kodiak’s founder and CEO, Don Burnette, said that the branded “Assisted Autonomy” system gives the company greater flexibility to provide customer goods in a wider range of sites and scenarios.
“Regardless of the maturity of an autonomous driving system, there are still scenarios that will benefit from human help, though only as a backup,” he said.
