Koch says Gatik box trucks now deliver with nobody aboard

February 2026 — Gatik's box trucks are now hauling goods between warehouses and stores with no one on board, according to the company and its investor Koch. Here's what launched, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of Feb. 19, 2026)

Fleet: 10 driverless trucks, with 60 planned "early this year," per Koch. (Koch)
Activity: 60,000 driverless orders, more than 2,000 driverless hours and over 10,000 driverless miles since mid-2025, Gatik says. (FreightWaves)
Contracts: more than $600 million in "committed, multiyear, noncancelable revenue," Narang told FreightWaves. (FreightWaves)
Markets: Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix and Northwest Arkansas. (Koch)
Prices and costs: not disclosed.

What launched

Gatik announced on Jan. 27, 2026 that its freight-only trucks run on public roads with no driver or safety observer behind the wheel. They make daily deliveries for Fortune 50 retailers, it said. The trucks run nearly 24 hours a day on routes of up to 400 miles, moving ambient, refrigerated and frozen goods. They drive on highways at up to 65 mph and on surface streets, FreightWaves reported.

Gatik focuses on the "middle mile": short regional routes between distribution centers, warehouses and stores. Its trucks are deployed in Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, Nebraska and Ontario, FreightWaves said.

How Gatik says it checked safety

Gatik said it launched only after "independent testing, inspection and certification organizations," which it did not name, reviewed critical parts of its Safety Assessment Framework. It said it briefed federal regulators, including the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, beforehand. Transportation, public safety and motor vehicle departments in Texas, Arizona and Arkansas also reviewed the operation, according to Gatik, and it trained first responders and local officials. The system itself is Gatik's third-generation Gatik Driver, which the company says has redundant safety-critical systems. Koch's post says the 60,000 orders came "without incident." That is Gatik's own count.

The business model

Gatik calls its model "asset-light and operationally light": it does not own the trucks or handle maintenance, but keeps the customer relationship, per FreightWaves. Strategic partners include Isuzu, NVIDIA and Ryder. Narang said the contracts come from large e-commerce, consumer-packaged-goods and logistics companies, none of which Gatik named.

Isuzu builds the medium-duty platforms. The two are preparing a mass-production autonomous-ready truck, with production expected at Isuzu's new South Carolina plant toward the end of 2027. "Isuzu is contributing reliable vehicle platforms to support this progress," said Isuzu's Hiroshi Sato.

What Gatik said

"Autonomous trucking is no longer a promise. It's a business," Narang said in Gatik's release, which Koch's post quotes in part. "With more than $600 million in contracted revenue, Gatik has proved that autonomous trucking is not only possible but commercially viable, and the fierce demand for our solution reflects how quickly this new model will reshape the future of logistics."

Narang told FreightWaves the fleet would reach 60 trucks "in the coming weeks" and "hundreds" by year-end. Koch's post calls Gatik "the first company in North America" to run fully driverless trucks commercially at scale. That is Gatik's claim.

What went wrong

Investor as narrator. Koch is a Gatik backer, so its post is not independent.
No independent check. We found no independent source confirming Gatik's fleet, order, mileage or safety figures. The "independent" review Gatik cites covered parts of its Safety Assessment Framework, not these figures.
Numbers that need explaining. 60,000 orders over about 10,000 driverless miles averages roughly a sixth of a mile per order. Gatik doesn't define an order.
Unnamed reviewers. The safety assessors and retail customers are not named.
What we don't know yet: route prices, how Gatik defines an incident, and how many trucks actually reached driverless service by spring.

Our follow-up question for Gatik

What counts as one "order," and who conducted the independent safety review?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

On Aug. 25, 2026, Gatik announced a $200 million Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, Truck News reported. Gatik said it had completed 85,000 driverless orders with a 99% on-time rate and runs "dozens" of driverless trucks, aiming for thousands in the coming years. Those are company figures. (Truck News)

Sources

Koch, “Gatik Leads the Way in Fully Driverless Commercial Truck Deliveries,” Feb. 19, 2026. kochinc.com
Gatik, “Gatik Becomes First U.S. Company to Operate Fully Driverless Trucks at Scale for Commercial Deliveries,” Jan. 27, 2026. archive.gatik.ai
FreightWaves, Thomas Wasson, “Gatik launches fully driverless commercial trucking operations,” Jan. 27, 2026. freightwaves.com
Truck News, “Gatik sees autonomous freight demand accelerate as it plans major fleet expansion,” Aug. 26, 2026. trucknews.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder