Kodiak Robotics, an autonomous truck manufacturer, secured a two-year contract from the US Department of Defense worth USD 50 million, to develop, test, and deploy autonomous ground vehicle software for the US national army.  

The contract was awarded by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on behalf of the army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle program. Kodiak will be tasked with developing software that can be used to navigate off-road terrain, diverse operational conditions, and GPS-challenged environments while being applicable to different formats and vehicle configurations. 

This partnership will enable the DIU to bridge the commercial and military deployment of autonomous vehicle technology to serve a number of potential use cases such as reconnaissance, surveillance, and risk reduction in war zones. The company stated that the first year of the contract will be dedicated to deploying its existing autonomous software for army-specific use cases, while the second year will be dedicated to implementing its autonomous driving system on off-road vehicles. 

Additionally, the company will develop a vehicle (similar to an ATV) that can be operated autonomously for data collection, testing, and evaluation, as well as different sensor configurations for different mission profiles.