Cummins and middle-mile autonomous truck tech startup Gatik announced Tuesday a collaboration to integrate Gatik's autonomous driving system with Cummins’ advanced powertrain solution in Gatik’s fleet of medium-duty trucks. Cummins will work closely with Gatik’s engineering team to provide additional technical expertise.
Gatik’s collaboration with Cummins is part of Gatik’s platform-agnostic commercialization strategy, enabling the company to integrate its autonomous driving system with multiple OEMs, and across a range of vehicle platforms powered by Cummins.
Under the collaboration, Cummins will utilize its suite of advanced software features to integrate its powertrain solution to enable Drive-by-wire (DbW) for Gatik’s Isuzu FTR fleet with the Cummins B6.7 engine. Gatik CTO and co-founder Arjun Narang, said the integration of Gatik’s commercial-grade autonomous technology with Cummins’ powertrain "increases functional safety and enhances reliability of the autonomous system, while improving fuel efficiency and offering superior vehicle performance on Gatik’s short-haul, business-to-business delivery routes."
Gatik's medium-duty Isuzu FTR fleet with the Cummins B6.7 engine will be deployed for customers across North America, including Georgia-Pacific and KBX in Texas. Under this partnership, Gatik will deliver goods 24/7 across a network of 34 Sam's Club locations. Gatik last year launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial delivery service with Walmart.
This announcement comes on the heels of rapid commercial and technical progress at Gatik, which has one of the largest commercially deployed autonomous fleets in North America operating for Fortune 500 customers across Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Ontario, Canada. In the past 12 months, Gatik announced its industry-first partnership with Isuzu to implement OEM-grade redundancies for medium-duty trucks, collaboration with Goodyear to equip its fleet with tire intelligence technology to improve stopping distances and monitor tire pressure in real time for enhanced safety, and a strategic partnership with Ryder to leverage Ryder’s national leasing, servicing and fleet maintenance expertise.
