• Gatik, an autonomous truck developer for middle-mile delivery, has started fully autonomous operations (without a safety driver), hauling goods on behalf of Walmart— Gatik’s partner since 2019. This is a major milestone for the company and is the first autonomous truck company to have launched fully autonomous, commercial operations in the US so far.

• The operations commenced this August, deploying two trucks to transport goods, daily (12 hours) on a fixed 7.1-mile route between the retailer’s warehouse and a store in Bentonville, Arkansas.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Gatik began paving the way for autonomous operations with Walmart nearly one year ago, securing approval from the Arkansas State Highway Commission. Even though Gatik was the first to launch fully autonomous trucking operations in the US, its peers are progressing toward the goal too. Incidentally, last week TuSimple revealed that it plans to begin driverless pilots by the end of the year, and Aurora Innovation plans to begin driverless operations by 2023.</ul>