Convoy was a 1978 trucker anthem about CB radios and rebellion. The 2028 remake, apparently, will feature 75 big rigs hauling fresh produce down I-20 with nobody behind the wheel to yell "10-4, good buddy."
Produce, Interstates, and a License Fee
Kodiak AI announced on October 28 that it will supply 75 self-driving trucks to DTL Transport, a California mid-market carrier that hauls fresh produce and goods to grocery chains. It's Kodiak's first binding commercial deal for driverless big rigs on public highways, with deliveries starting in 2028. DTL plans to start on interstate routes Kodiak has already tested and operated: Dallas to El Paso, and I-20 between Dallas and Atlanta. The dollar value wasn't disclosed.
The deal grew out of a pilot last month in California, where Kodiak hauled perishables about 225 miles between Fresno and Los Angeles with a human safety operator aboard. Meanwhile, Kodiak plans to pull safety operators from the cab in December and launch a driverless highway service carrying Ikea goods on I-45 between Dallas and Houston.
From Trucking Company to Software Vendor
The real story is the business model. Today Kodiak mostly runs "Trucking-as-a-Service," owning and operating trucks itself for customers like Werner and Roehl. DTL is its first on-highway "Driver-as-a-Service" customer: DTL owns and runs the trucks, Kodiak licenses the driving brain and charges per mile. As the CEO put it, "We don't want to be in the business of running a trucking company." Using Kodiak's own investor projections — roughly $0.97 per mile and 225,000 miles per truck per year — TechCrunch estimates the deal could be worth at least about $11.2 million in annual recurring revenue once all 75 trucks roll.
The angle worth watching is who Kodiak is selling to. Mid-market carriers, the CEO argues, are easier to integrate with "because they're not as large" — fewer layers of legacy process to fight through. That's a familiar story in every industry adopting AI: the nimble mid-sized players often move first while the giants are still scheduling the steering-committee meeting. Investors haven't been quite as patient, though — Kodiak's shares are down 87% from their opening-day price, so this deal carries some real weight.
Autonomy isn't arriving as a robot revolution. It's arriving as a per-mile license fee and a 2028 delivery date — which is exactly how real technology shifts tend to look.
Mid-sized businesses moving faster than the giants on AI isn't just a trucking thing — we help organizations find the practical, per-workflow wins that make AI pay off.
Source: TechCrunch