Launch of the First Fully Driverless Deployment in Canada
TORONTO, ON – October 5, 2022 – Gatik, the market leader in autonomous middle mile logistics, today announced the launch of its fully driverless commercial operations. It is partnering with Canada’s leading food and pharmacy retailer, Loblaw Companies Limited (TSX: L, “Loblaw”). Gatik is now moving select online grocery orders, for Loblaw’s PC Express service, with a fleet of multi-temperature autonomous box trucks.
Since January 2020, Loblaw and Gatik have transported more than 150,000 autonomous deliveries (with a safety driver on board), with a 100 percent safety record. Gatik’s fully driverless deployment represents the first time an autonomous trucking company has removed the safety driver from a daily delivery route in Canada. This unlocks the true advantages of autonomous delivery for Loblaw’s customers. Autonomous delivery enables Loblaw to operate more routes and make more frequent trips. It establishes a supply chain that is safer, more sustainable, and more resilient.
Safety Validation Behind the Fully Driverless Deployment in Canada
Loblaw commissioned an extensive third-party safety review. Following this review, experts endorsed Gatik’s autonomous technology and approach for safe & secure operations on these routes. This review took place over a three-month period. It included an assessment of the end-to-end technology solution and evaluated development and deployment processes. In addition, it assessed standards and regulatory compliance while conducting risk assessment and evaluating control measures. Furthermore, it involved physical component, subsystem, and vehicle-level testing. The assessment included sending degraded/incorrect sensor data, GPS jamming/spoofing, incorrect acceleration with objects in front, etc. This paved the way for Gatik’s fleet to transport ambient, refrigerated, and frozen goods seven days a week. The fleet operates from a Loblaw distribution facility to five nearby retail locations in the Greater Toronto Area. It follows fixed, repetitive, and predictable routes.
Expanding Fully Driverless Fully Driverless Deployment in Canada and Beyond
“Working with Gatik, we’ve demonstrated that autonomous driving technology enables supply chain efficiency. As a result, we can move more orders more frequently for our customers,” said David Markwell, Chief Technology and Analytics Officer, Loblaw Companies Limited. “Moreover, being the first in Canada with this technology and deploying a fully driverless solution is exciting. It also illustrates our commitment to making grocery shopping better for customers.”
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“This milestone marks the expansion of Gatik’s autonomous delivery service to Loblaw’s customers across multiple sites,” said Gautam Narang, CEO and co-founder, Gatik. “Canada is the latest market where we’ve launched our fully driverless service. This further validates that the tangible benefits of autonomous delivery are being realized first in B2B short-haul logistics. It’s a privilege to achieve this commercial and technical landmark with Canada’s largest retailer.”
Structured Autonomy Power Fully Driverless Deployment in Canada
Gatik’s approach to structured autonomy has enabled the company to achieve a 100% safety record across each of its deployment sites in Canada and the USA. Gatik focuses exclusively on facilitating frequent, point-to-point deliveries across the middle mile to maximize safety. It uses proprietary, commercial-grade autonomous technology that is purpose built for B2B short-haul logistics.Gatik constrains the operating environment in this way. This has allowed the company to safely achieve fully driverless operations in multiple markets. In 2021, Gatik became the first autonomous trucking company worldwide to remove the safety driver from a commercial delivery route on the middle mile, transporting goods for Walmart in Arkansas, USA.
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
