Kodiak AI has set a year-end target to run trucks on U.S. highways with no one behind the wheel. As of its third-quarter results, the company says its own readiness measure stands at 99%.
The quarter brought two commercial milestones. Kodiak signed a binding agreement with DTL Transport to deploy its autonomous system in 75 customer-owned trucks. It also named IKEA Supply as its first partner for long-haul driverless freight, with runs planned along the Dallas-to-Houston corridor. Neither announcement carries a stated dollar value or a start date for operations.
For anyone holding the stock, the gap between milestones and money matters. Third-quarter revenue was about $3 million, which Chief Financial Officer Surajit Datta said represented 286% growth year-over-year. Against that, the company spent about $35 million in cash on operations during the same quarter. Cash and marketable securities combined stood at about $114 million at quarter-end.
The 99% readiness figure is Kodiak's own measure — the company calls it its Autonomy Readiness Measure. The release does not say who verifies it or how it is calculated, though the company says it supports a targeted year-end launch of unsupervised driverless trucks on long-haul U.S. highways.
Shares closed 34.58% higher at $1.2800, on dollar volume of about $19.4 million.
Other highlights from the quarter: Kodiak surpassed 58,000 cumulative paid driverless hours and delivered the first trucks to bring Atlas Energy Solutions' autonomous fleet to 37. The company also completed its first autonomous delivery in California after receiving a state permit, and ran a U.S. Marine Corps demonstration using technology drawn from its commercial platform.
The year-end launch target is now weeks away. The release does not say what changes if it slips.