Kodiak Robotics has unveiled its first autonomous check car for the U.S. Division of Protection, a Ford F-150 pickup truck that the startup has upfitted with its software program and sensor stack.
The DOD is utilizing the car to check autonomous surveillance and reconnaissance missions in off-road terrain, various operational situations and GPS-challenged environments. Kodiak received the $50 million two-year contract with the Military in December 2022, and now has one other 12 months to construct and ship two off-road-capable autos primarily based on the F-150. If the pilot is profitable, Kodiak could possibly be one of many Military’s future companions as it really works to advance autonomous army functions.
“Finally, the battlefield of tomorrow goes to be autonomous,” Don Burnette, CEO and co-founder of Kodiak, advised TechCrunch. “We need to get women and men out of hurt’s means. And that is the expertise that’s going to take us into the way forward for contested environments.”
Most of Kodiak’s go-to-market is centered round commercializing self-driving vehicles, however many superior mobility corporations are seeing the army as a faster path to income. The Military has been transferring ahead with varied initiatives devoted to autonomous driving, and the Air Drive has signed on electrical vertical takeoff and touchdown (eVTOL) corporations like Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation to spice up superior aerial expertise in nationwide protection methods.
As a part of its partnership with the DoD, Kodiak is especially offering the software program and sensor suite, and can work with {hardware} suppliers on integrating the Kodiak Driver onto a next-gen, purpose-built, floor reconnaissance car, which has not but been designed or constructed. Kodiak and the DoD had been toying with the thought of an ATV-style car, however discovered these to be too small for the use case.
“[ATV-like vehicles] are usually fairly underpowered and so they can’t carry each numerous compute and sensing and folks,” Burnette advised TechCrunch. “So the F-150 was extra size-wise equal to the last word platform that the Military goes for. And it’s a really succesful car.”
Crucial factor, from Kodiak’s perspective, is having the ability to present a software program and sensor stack that may be built-in into a number of totally different car sorts and serve quite a lot of use instances. That’s the place Kodiak’s modular, swappable SensorPods are available in, which the startup makes use of on its Class-8 vehicles. Kodiak says it tailored its pods for protection functions, and that the so-called DefensePod may be switched out within the subject in 10 minutes or much less by a technician with no specialised coaching. It took lower than six months for the Kodiak Driver to be put in in a brand new car, based on the corporate.
“We developed our autonomous driving system in a means that’s conducive and broadly relevant to different environments outdoors of over the street freeway,” mentioned Burnette. “We predict that’s a strategic benefit. And we need to make the most of the truth that our system works in these twin use environments.”