Dive Brief:
- Gatik and Loblaw Cos. will expand their autonomous truck operations in the Toronto area, putting 20 AVs in place this year and 30 by the end of 2026, according to a Sept. 23 news release.
- The partnership for the retailer’s distribution network will ultimately deliver food and household items, the release said. The Class 6 trucks will operate 12 hours per day, seven days per week, a spokesperson on behalf of Gatik told Trucking Dive in an email.
- “It’s the first time a major retailer has transitioned from pilot to commercial scale with autonomous trucks,” Gautam Narang, CEO and co-founder of Gatik, said in the news release.
Dive Insight:
The two companies began delivering freight in the Toronto area in 2020 and later removed drivers, the companies shared in 2022.
That earlier effort entailed trucks delivering goods to five retails locations and the Loblaw headquarters, but the expansion will service 300 retail locations across nine municipalities: Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Toronto, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Pickering and Oshawa, the spokesperson told Trucking Dive.
To carry out the expansion, the pair signed a five-year deal backed by investment from Loblaw, according to the news release.
“Autonomous logistics will enable us to move more orders more frequently for our customers,” Rob Wiebe, chief administrator of Loblaw, said in the release.
Recently, Ontario implemented a 10-year pilot program in August to oversee automated commercial vehicle technology. The new framework allows Gatik’s medium-duty trucks on all surface streets and highways in the province in a safe manner with rapid scale, the company said.
In this phase of the partnership, Gatik will have safety drivers onboard initially before transiting to driverless operations, the company said.
Gatik and other AV companies are also pursuing operations throughout the U.S. The company, based in Mountain View, California, has other operations underway in Arizona, Arkansas and Texas, the release said.
Meanwhile, Aurora Innovation noted in a July investor presentation that it opened a Phoenix terminal in June and was operating not just in Texas but was using its Phoenix lane to pilot autonomous freight with Werner Enterprises and Hirschbach Motor Lines.
Waabi also noted it’s been running regular commercial loads between Dallas and Houston.
Texas’ welcoming regulatory environment has made it a hot spot for AV activity, with AV firms testing operations there to help them prepare for driverless and longer routes.
