Expansion of Autonomous Vehicle Deployment in Kansas
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – May 18, 2022 – Gatik, the market leader in autonomous middle mile logistics, today announced that it will be expanding operations to Kansas following the signing of Senate Bill 313 into law by Governor Laura Kelly. The law enables the deployment of fully autonomous trucks on public roads in the state, paving the way for enhanced road safety, increased product flow, lower costs and higher asset utilization on the supply chain.
Collaboration Supporting Autonomous Vehicle Deployment in Kansas
Gatik worked closely with Walmart and key stakeholders including the Kansas Department of Transportation, the Governor’s office, leadership in the House and Senate and the Kansas Sheriffs’ Association to develop and propose legislation that prioritizes the safe and structured introduction of autonomous vehicles in the state. Prior to commencing operations, Gatik will work closely with state and local authorities to provide education and training sessions to law enforcement and first responders as part of the company’s industry-leading stakeholder engagement strategy.
“We are excited to bring our autonomous fleet to the state of Kansas, and ensure that the advantages of autonomous delivery on the middle mile can be realized by Kansans in the near-term,” said Richard Steiner, Head of Policy, Gatik. “We applaud Governor Kelly for taking a proactive approach to enabling the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles, and look forward to laying down roots in the state of Kansas, creating a wealth of new jobs and delivering essential goods to Kansans with speed and efficiency.”
Regulatory Milestones Supporting Autonomous Vehicle Deployment
Gatik and Walmart have an impressive track record of working closely with state legislators and regulators across multiple jurisdictions. In 2019, Walmart and Gatik proposed legislation in Arkansas to pave the way for commercial operations to commence and in 2020, the companies received the first approval ever granted by the Arkansas State Highway Commission to remove the safety driver from Gatik’s autonomous trucks, following the completion of 18 months’ successful operations. The new legislation in Kansas sees the Sunflower State become the 25th in the US to allow fully autonomous vehicles to operate on public roads.
Since commencing commercial operations in 2019, Gatik has achieved a 100 percent safety record across multiple operational sites in North America – including Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Ontario – and in 2021 became the first company to operate fully driverless commercial deliveries on a middle mile delivery route anywhere in the world with Walmart, in their home state of Arkansas. Gatik focuses exclusively on fixed, repeatable delivery routes to maximize safety, meet consumer demand for real-time access to goods, and establish reliability and sustainability on the supply chain’s middle mile.
About Gatik
Gatik is in the business of autonomous freight. The company operates driverless trucks daily for Fortune 50 retailers, grocers and CPG companies, moving freight between distribution centers and stores across Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, and Canada. Gatik has a strong safety record across its operations and is powered by the Gatik Driver™, a scalable, interpretable AI system purpose-built to enable safe, consistent, and high-frequency freight movement. For more information, visit gatik.ai.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Gatik’s future financial or operating performance. Forward-looking statements include information concerning possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of our business plan and strategies, revenue targets and trends we expect to affect our business. These statements often include words such as “contracted,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “may,” “can,” “should,” “could,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “project,” “strive,” “budget,” “forecast,” “expect,” “intend,” “target”, “will,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “scheduled”. Forward-looking statements may also be made, verbally or in writing, by members of our Board or management team in connection with this news release.
These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause Gatik’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including Gatik’s ability to execute on its growth plans, any failure to comply with laws, rules, regulations or business practices that Gatik may become subject to as a result of any expansion of its business resulting from the financing, including Gatik’s ability to successfully execute on its growth strategies and operating plans, achieve its targeted annualized contracted revenue, continue to develop its existing customer base, design and deploy an expanded fleet of trucks on behalf of customers, and diversify and expand into the market for autonomous logistics solutions. These and other important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any forward-looking statement included in this press release speaks only as of the date of such statement. Except as required by law, Gatik disclaims any obligation to update or revise, or to publicly announce any update or revision to, any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Media Contact:
Aarthi Sivaraman
aarthi.sivaraman@gatik.ai
