Kodiak Robotics, a developer of AI-powered autonomous vehicle technology, and Roush Industries, a product development supplier serving mobility, aerospace, defense, and entertainment markets, have announced the delivery of the first Kodiak Driver-equipped truck built on Roush’s production line.
The truck, upfitted at Roush’s Livonia, Michigan facility with the Kodiak Driver autonomous driving system, was delivered in August 2025 to Atlas Energy Solutions. Atlas began taking delivery of Kodiak-equipped trucks in December 2024 and has since launched driverless operations in the Permian Basin. To date, Atlas has received eight trucks, part of an initial 100-truck order with Kodiak.
Kodiak CEO and founder Don Burnette said the milestone demonstrates the pace of progress: “Taking delivery of the first Roush-upfitted truck is another example of how the future of freight is arriving. The speed and quality of Roush’s work confirm why we are confident they’re the right partner to help us transform the freight and logistics market at scale.”
Kodiak announced its partnership with Roush in June 2025. Since then, Roush has established a dedicated production line to scale upfitting of trucks with Kodiak’s modular, vehicle-agnostic hardware, including its proprietary SensorPods, AI compute, Actuation Control Engine (ACE) safety compute, and redundant actuation systems. Together, the companies plan to ramp up production into the hundreds of trucks by the end of 2026.
Brad Rzetelny, Roush’s Vice President of Contract Manufacturing, said: “Delivering the first Roush-upfit truck shows how our process can meet Kodiak’s high standards while supporting its ability to scale. We’re playing an important role in putting this technology where it belongs: into commercial service.”
Kodiak is also advancing toward its public listing. In April 2025, the company announced a planned business combination with Ares Acquisition Corporation II. A shareholder vote is scheduled for September 23, 2025, with the combined company expected to list on Nasdaq beginning September 25 under the symbols “KDK” and “KDKRW.” The move is intended to accelerate Kodiak’s go-to-market strategy, strengthen its ability to meet rising demand, and position the company to capture a share of the $4 trillion global trucking market.
