J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Bridgestone Americas, and Kodiak Robotics, an autonomous trucking company, have announced that their ongoing weekly delivery collaboration has surpassed 50,000 autonomously-driven long-haul trucking miles (80,467 km).
The partnership incorporates Kodiak autonomous trucks to ship Bridgestone passenger car tires between South Carolina and Dallas. Since its launch in January, the autonomous route has been driven with no accidents and on-time pick-up and delivery. The companies have likewise expanded their collaboration to include additional weekly deliveries along the route.
Utilizing Kodiak’s hub-to-hub autonomous delivery model, the long-haul stretch of the route from Atlanta to Dallas (measuring approximately 750 miles/1207 km and taking 16 hours to drive) is completed using Kodiak autonomous driving technology, which is fitted with Bridgestone M719 drive tires and R213 steer tires. J.B. Hunt transports the trailers to and from Bridgestone facilities and Kodiak hubs. The companies leverage J.B. Hunt 360box, a network of 14,000-plus company trailers, to secure capacity for the return trip from Dallas – preventing empty miles and improving route efficiency.
The full route initially sees J.B. Hunt move the load from Bridgestone’s Aiken Passenger Tire plant in Graniteville, SC to Kodiak’s Atlanta-area autonomous truckport in Villa Rica, Georgia. Kodiak’s autonomous trucks complete the long-haul stretch of the route from Atlanta to Kodiak’s Lancaster, Texas facility. A two-person team of Kodiak safety drivers oversee the continuous operation of the autonomous truck, while J.B. Hunt transports the load approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Lancaster to Bridgestone’s Roanoke distribution center. For the trip from Dallas to Atlanta, J.B. Hunt leverages its 360box program to identify additional customers with live and drop freight needs along that route. Kodiak completes the delivery autonomously to Atlanta, and J.B. Hunt transports the load to its next destination.
Bridgestone initially invested in, and partnered with, Kodiak in June 2021. Through this partnership, Bridgestone integrated its smart-sensing tire technologies into Kodiak’s autonomous trucks and have gone on to integrate smart tire technologies to further enhance vehicle intelligence for safer, more efficient, and more sustainable mobility.
