The Silicon Valley firm, which operates autonomous, fixed-route deliveries for companies including Walmart, Kroger and Georgia Pacific, will get purpose-built vehicles from the Japanese truckmaker.Gatik, a Silicon Valley-based autonomous driving startup with dozens of vehicles in commercial operation, said it has a first-of-its-kind partnership with Isuzu to develop purpose-built robotic commercial vehicles, as well as a $30 million equity investment from the Japanese truck maker.
“This is the first time, as far as we know, that a truck manufacturer has committed to mass production of Level-4 autonomous trucks,” Narang said. “We think it validates our technology, the use case and the economics. It positions Gatik for significant scale across the $250 billion middle mile market in North America.