Isuzu North America and Gatik have agreed to collaborate on a project to develop and evaluate fully autonomous medium-duty trucks. This collaboration is an industry first in the medium-duty category and will accelerate the commercialization of autonomous delivery fleets while contributing to a safer and more sustainable logistics community in the future.
The collaboration will integrate Gatik's autonomous driving technology into several Isuzu medium-duty N-Series trucks to produce SAE Level 4 delivery vehicles with redundant systems. The first vehicles will be deployed this year due to the cooperative efforts of Gatik's and Isuzu's engineering teams.
"By bringing these two teams together, we can create segment-changing technology while positioning Gatik to safely commercialize autonomous delivery technology at scale," said Gatik's CEO and Co-Founder Gautam Narang.
"As customer requirements for the medium-duty product evolve at an increasingly rapid pace, having the ability to collaborate with Gatik, an industry leader in autonomous technology is very exciting for our team," said Takashi Sadaoka, President and CEO of Isuzu North America.
Rapidly increasing e-commerce sales and a well-documented driver shortage have caused businesses to struggle to meet the expectations of on-demand goods movement. This effort will combine Gatik's autonomous driving software and operational expertise with Isuzu's award-winning truck platform to address these critical industry pain points, ensuring retailers can maintain capacity, lower operating costs, and keep delivery times short.
