IKEA turns to driverless semis with nobody in the cab

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"The decision to remove the driver isn't based on any single test or milestone," Burnette told CyberGuy. "It's the result of years of operating experience, rigorous validation and a clear safety case that gives us a clear, evidence-based framework for determining when the Kodiak Driver is ready to operate safely without anyone in the cab."

As of the end of September, Kodiak said 96% of the claims and evidence required for its long-haul safety case were materially complete, up from 93% at the end of August. The remaining work includes engineering verification, validation and final safety assessments. Kodiak expects to complete that work before launching driverless long-haul service by the end of 2026. The company also has experience running trucks commercially with empty cabs.

I asked Burnette what drivers on I-45 will actually notice once the new service starts. His answer was pretty straightforward. "The biggest difference is that there won't be anyone in the cab," he said.

The driverless section will cover 219 miles, primarily along Interstate 45 between Kodiak facilities in the Dallas and Houston areas. That stretch is part of a longer 292-mile delivery route connecting IKEA's distribution center in Baytown with its store in Frisco.

Kodiak has been carrying IKEA products along the route for four years with a safety observer aboard. During that time, the companies have also been figuring out the less obvious parts of running autonomous freight, such as when trucks should leave, when they will reach the destination and how maintenance should be scheduled.

The trucks themselves have redundancy systems built into safety-critical components including braking, steering, power and computing. "From the outside, the drive itself should look pretty boring, and that's exactly what we want," Burnette said. "The Kodiak Driver is designed to be predictable, courteous, conservative and defensive." Frankly, boring is exactly what I think we all want from a giant truck with nobody sitting behind the wheel.

Burnette says the Kodiak Driver continuously monitors more than 1,000 safety-critical components across the truck, its sensors, hardware and autonomy software. If the system detects a serious issue, it can switch from normal driving into what Kodiak calls a fallback maneuver. That process is designed to bring the truck to a controlled stop in a safe location.

Kodiak also puts limits around where and under what conditions the truck can operate. In the autonomous vehicle world, that is called an Operational Design Domain, or ODD. You can think of the ODD as the truck's approved operating boundaries. If the situation falls outside what the system has been designed and tested to handle, Burnette says the truck can fall back rather than continuing as though nothing has changed.

No one will be in the cab, but people will still be watching what is happening. Kodiak has a command center just south of Dallas. However, Burnette does not describe those workers as remote drivers waiting to take control. If the Kodiak Driver runs into a situation it cannot safely resolve, it can activate its fallback system and then, as Burnette puts it, "call home for help." The command center can provide guidance about what the truck should do next.

That is different from a person taking over the steering wheel from miles away. "We use redundant communications channels to ensure we remain in contact with the truck, but if connectivity is lost, the Kodiak Driver still has to be able to respond safely on its own," Burnette said.

That last part is especially important. If the cellular or communications connection goes down, the truck cannot simply sit there waiting for someone at the command center to tell it what to do. Kodiak says the vehicle still has to get itself into a safe state.

Highway driving involves situations that go well beyond staying between the lane lines. Police pull vehicles over. Ambulances approach from behind. Accident scenes can suddenly change the flow of traffic. A truck with nobody in the cab still has to recognize what is happening around it and respond.

Kodiak says its autonomous system is designed to identify emergency vehicles, stopped vehicles, lane closures and accident scenes. The system can slow down or move over when appropriate. The company has also spent time working directly with first responders.

Another piece of technology comes into play if a Kodiak truck stops along the road. Kodiak has integrated HAAS Alert's Safety Cloud. That system can send digital warnings about a stopped truck to nearby motorists through compatible navigation apps and vehicle systems.

You knew I was going to ask this one. Once software has control of an 18-wheeler, cybersecurity becomes a major part of the conversation. I asked Burnette what keeps someone from hacking into a truck and interfering with systems like the steering or brakes. "Cybersecurity is something we take very seriously," he said.

That isolation is important because communication with the outside world should not provide a direct doorway into critical driving systems. Burnette says Kodiak also monitors for threats and maintains an incident response process. Burnette also addressed what happens if the truck loses connectivity. "The truck's safety doesn't depend on connectivity, and it's designed to bring itself to a safe stop if something isn't right," Burnette said. No connected vehicle comes with a promise that hackers will never target it. That is why I will be watching how these protections hold up as more driverless trucks begin traveling public highways.

With a traditional truck, investigators can look at what the person behind the wheel did before a crash. But what happens when nobody was behind the wheel? I asked Burnette who would ultimately be responsible if a driverless Kodiak truck were involved in an accident. "Responsibility for a driverless vehicle works similarly to responsibility for any vehicle: it depends on the circumstances surrounding the crash," he said.

Burnette says Kodiak trucks have more than a dozen sensors aboard. Those sensors can give the company a detailed record of what happened around the vehicle. That information could be especially useful when investigators need to reconstruct the moments leading up to a crash.

I wanted to push on the limits too. Autonomous driving companies spend plenty of time telling us what their technology can do. I think it is just as useful to ask what it cannot do.

Burnette pointed back to the Operational Design Domain. "The Kodiak Driver is designed to operate under specific conditions," he said. "If the truck leaves its ODD, it will simply achieve a fallback. That's intentional." At launch, Burnette says the ODD will cover the Dallas-Houston corridor. Kodiak plans to expand the operating area during 2027 and beyond.

This may be the biggest question of all for someone who makes a living driving a truck. If a semi can travel hundreds of highway miles without a person in the cab, what happens to the person who used to sit there? "We see autonomous trucks supplementing the workload rather than eliminating the need for them," Burnette said.

Burnette also explained why Kodiak is targeting this type of work. "Our focus is on the long, repetitive highway miles that can keep drivers away from home for days or weeks at a time," Burnette told CyberGuy.

The part I keep coming back to is that there will actually be nobody in the cab. Kodiak has spent four years hauling IKEA freight on this route with a safety observer aboard. Taking that person out changes the stakes, especially when you are talking about an 18-wheeler traveling alongside the rest of us on a busy interstate. I also give Burnette credit for answering our tougher questions. What happens when something breaks? Can somebody remotely drive it? How are the steering and brakes protected from hackers? Kodiak has built systems around each of those concerns, but now comes the test that counts. Once these trucks start piling up driverless highway miles with nobody there to step in, we will get a much clearer idea of how ready this technology really is.

Would you feel comfortable driving next to an 18-wheeler with nobody behind the wheel, or would you keep your distance until driverless trucks have a much longer safety record? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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