Kodiak, Atlas Energy deploy RoboTrucks for driverless proppant transport in Permian

January 24, 2025

Atlas Energy Solutions has completed the delivery of 100 loads of proppant with its two RoboTrucks, semi-trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver, Kodiak Robotics’ self-driving system.

This milestone marks the first time ever that a customer has taken ownership of a RoboTruck and launched driverless commercial semi-trucking operations. The initial driverless operations, which were announced in July 2024, involved Kodiak delivering Atlas’s frac sand along a 21-mile off-road route in West Texas’s Permian Basin with Kodiak-owned driverless trucks. With Kodiak providing the self-driving technology for these initial Atlas-owned RoboTrucks, Atlas is now able to complete its own driverless deliveries across the 75,000 square mile Permian basin in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.

“This is an incredible moment, for us and for the autonomous trucking industry as we have officially delivered a commercial RoboTruck to a customer and launched commercial operations,” said Don Burnette, Founder and CEO, Kodiak. “The commercialization of autonomous trucks has been a goal for the industry for many years, and it has now come to fruition. Kodiak is the first company to make autonomous trucking a real business, and this is a major step towards profitability for our company.”

Atlas intends to scale its RoboTruck deployment considerably over the course of 2025 with multiple RoboTruck deployments expected throughout the year. Given the scale and scope of operations in the Permian basin, Kodiak announced that it has established an office in Odessa, Texas to support Atlas’s operations. The 18,000-square-foot facility houses a team of 12 Kodiak employees, and is projected to grow to approximately 20 people by the end of Q1 2025.

“Incorporating these driverless RoboTrucks into our operations is a significant advancement in the automation of our business, enhancing our ability to maintain a fundamentally safe and reliable service at the best price for our customers,” said John Turner, CEO, Atlas. “Becoming the first company to operate our own autonomous semi-trucks and reaching 100 successful autonomous proppant deliveries demonstrates our unique commitment to driving innovation and automation across the Permian Basin’s rugged terrain, dust, and heat.”