Vay, a leading provider of automotive-grade remote driving technology, and Kodiak Robotics, a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, have announced a strategic partnership.
Through this strategic partnership, Vay’s technology is helping enable Kodiak’s proprietary Assisted Autonomy technology. Assisted Autonomy allows a human to remotely control a truck in certain low-speed and clearly-defined scenarios that benefit from human involvement, such as interacting with first responders. Assisted Autonomy is part of the functionality of Kodiak’s autonomous solution, the Kodiak Driver.
To help support Assisted Autonomy, Kodiak has deployed Vay Stations, as well as software tools that enable low-latency communications between Vay’s Stations and Kodiak Driver-powered vehicles. This allows the Kodiak Driver to handle a broader range of driving scenarios.
Kodiak currently utilizes Vay’s technology to provide Assisted Autonomy support when needed to Kodiak Driver-powered trucks, which are operating fully driverlessly in thePermian Basin of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Additionally, the Kodiak Driver uses Vay’s technology to support Assisted Autonomy with long-haul customers for launching and landing trucks at customer facilities and other low-speed driving scenarios, such as interacting with first responders.
“Assisted Autonomy provides the Kodiak Driver with more flexibility to deliver our customers’ freight in a greater range of locations and scenarios,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak. “No matter the maturity of an autonomous driving system, there are still scenarios that will benefit from human assistance, if only as a backup. Assisted Autonomy can be helpful in situations such as interpreting law enforcement hand signals. Rather than recreating the wheel on a remote assistance solution, we have chosen to partner with Vay, in our opinion the industry leader, which we believe will expedite our ability to safely scale.”
Blending Remote and Autonomous Driving for Greater Safety and Efficiency
Assisted Autonomy is a hybrid approach that blends remote support with onboard autonomy to create a solution that enables flexibility and safety. Assisted Autonomy therefore combines the value of human decision-making with the rigorous safety controls of the autonomous system.
“Over the last year, Vay has proven the use cases for remote driving—both in B2C and B2B settings. The strategic partnership with Kodiak will expand the B2B use cases to trucks,” said Thomas von der Ohe, co-founder and CEO of Vay. “We are excited to partner with Kodiak to help make trucking and freight delivery safer and more efficient by marrying the value of human decision-making with autonomous operations.”
From Innovation to Implementation
Through this partnership, Vay’s state-of-the-art Stations and connectivity stack enable Kodiak to implement Assisted Autonomy and real-time streaming of a near 360-degree view of the area around Kodiak’s trucks. All of Kodiak’s Assisted Autonomy drivers hold Commercial Driver’s Licenses and undergo rigorous training. When driving, they sit at one of Vay’s Stations with a steering wheel, pedals, and other intuitive vehicle controls developed in accordance with automotive industry standards.
Kodiak and Vay ensure robust communication with the trucks using multiple redundant communications protocols, offering a unique driver-out solution that facilitates broad operational capabilities.
In 2023, Vay became the first and is still the only company to drive cars without a human driver inside the car on European public roads. In January 2024, Vay began its commercial services in Las Vegas, Nevada, offering residents and visitors the opportunity to request a remotely delivered rental car to their location via Vay’s app. Since its launch, users have taken 10,000+ commercial trips. Vay’s technology has earned an endorsement from TÜV SÜD for functional safety and cybersecurity as a result of extensive analysis and testing.
