For years, conversations about autonomous trucking have focused on “someday.” Someday the technology will be reliable. Someday it will transform supply chains. Someday freight will move more frequently and more efficiently.
That “someday” has just become today.
With our expanded partnership with Loblaw, Canada’s largest retailer and one of the most sophisticated supply chain operators in North America, Gatik is delivering the future of logistics. It is doing so at commercial scale. Last week, we announced a five-year agreement to deploy 50 autonomous trucks across Loblaw’s regional distribution networks in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). This marks the first time a major North American retailer has advanced from pilot programs to full-scale commercial deployment. It is the largest single deployment of autonomous trucks on the continent.
Why Scale Changes the Game
Autonomous technology becomes truly transformative only when it evolves from isolated pilots into integrated, It embodies logistics solving real-world, high-value problems. It does so for one of the world’s most complex retail supply chains. Canada is grappling with a nationwide driver shortage – 35,000 vacancies, including more than 7,000 in Ontario. At the same time, consumer expectations are rising in an on-demand economy where shoppers expect goods available within hours.
Nearly 90% of Canadians live within 10 kilometers of a Loblaw location. The retailer’s hyperlocal distribution model is the perfect match for Gatik’s high-frequency, short-haul logistics solution. Our autonomous trucks are purpose-built to take on the kind of high-frequency distribution networks that form the backbone of regional supply chains. For Loblaw, that means our trucks will move goods from distribution centers in Mississauga and Ajax to more than 300 stores across the GTA. These include Loblaw supermarkets, No Frills, and Shoppers Drug Mart – the country’s largest drugstore chain.
What Scaling Looks Like in Practice
Each truck will handle routes up to 40 miles (65kms) across Loblaw’s regional distribution network, servicing multiple drop-off locations per trip. Collectively, this means thousands of autonomous deliveries every week flowing through the GTA. This keeps Loblaw shelves stocked and customers better served.
Gatik Driver™ powers this expansion. It is a safe, scalable & interpretable AI driver purpose-built for autonomous trucks. It is proven in real-world commercial operations. The new fleet will also include cold-chain-capable vehicles optimized for the movement of time-sensitive, perishable, and regulated goods. This enables the transport of a broad mix of inventory. This includes dry groceries, frozen items, fresh produce, and pharmaceutical products. All of this operates within a temperature-controlled, autonomous framework.
More Than a Partnership: Future-proofing Loblaw’s Supply Chain
What makes this announcement especially significant is Loblaw’s dual role as both customer and investor. By making a strategic investment in Gatik, Loblaw has signalled that autonomous logistics isn’t just a short-term efficiency play. It underscores the company’s confidence in autonomous logistics as a critical enabler to serve its customer-base long-term.
For Loblaw, this ensures a front-row seat in shaping the evolution of autonomous trucking and embedding it deeply into its operations over the next decade and beyond. For the autonomous trucking sector globally, this is a watershed moment. Retailers and logistics providers everywhere are looking for ways to move from experimental pilots to real-world operations that deliver measurable value.
This partnership offers a powerful blueprint for that transition. It proves that autonomy, when deployed with strategic intent, can deliver innovation. It can deliver operational scale, safety, reliability, and sustainability in a unified solution.
A Regulatory First
A critical enabler of this milestone is Ontario’s new Automated Commercial Motor Vehicle (ACMV) Program, which launched in August 2025. In preparation for Gatik’s multi-year expansion with Loblaw, we worked closely with the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) to help inform the development of the ACMV Program, which enables the operation of Gatik’s medium-duty autonomous trucks on all surface streets and highways in the province.
The ACMV program reflects the best of public-private collaboration – a model that balances safety, innovation, and economic competitiveness. The program has been carefully developed to facilitate the safe and rapid roll-out of autonomous trucks in Ontario. It ensures that the province continues to lead the way nationally in transportation innovation. We applaud the structured approach taken by the province to develop a regulatory regime which puts both safety and innovation at the forefront.
Looking Ahead
Gatik and Loblaw previously made history in 2022 with the deployment of Canada’s first driverless commercial fleet, setting the foundation for our historic expansion.
Over the next several years, this partnership will enter a transformative phase.
By the end of 2026, 50 autonomous Gatik trucks will be operating daily across the Greater Toronto Area. They will seamlessly move goods within one of North America’s most complex and high-density retail networks. This operation will be supported by Ontario’s forward-leaning regulatory framework, built specifically to keep pace with the rapid evolution of autonomous technology.
And this is only the beginning.
Our partnership with Loblaw is designed for scale – with a roadmap to extend autonomy across its national supply chain footprint. As the demand for faster, more resilient, and environmentally sustainable logistics intensifies, autonomous trucking is no longer a futuristic idea. It’s a strategic capability being deployed today.
As autonomous trucking in Canada continues to scale, Gatik and Loblaw are proving that commercial autonomy is not a future concept – it is operational today.
Autonomous trucking isn’t about “someday” anymore. It’s happening now – delivering real impact for retailers, customers, and the communities they serve.
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.
The securities described herein have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and were offered and sold in a transaction exempt from registration under the Securities Act. The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act.
This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful.
Gatik and the Gatik logo are trademarks of Gatik AI Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contact:
Aarthi Sivaraman
aarthi.sivaraman@gatik.ai
