Isuzu Motors Limited—headquartered in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan—and Gatik AI, Inc. of Mountainview, California, have announced plans to work together to further enhance the development of the North American autonomous driving business.
Isuzu will invest US$30 million in Gatik, forging a strong partnership between the two companies in the pursuit of realizing mobility services based on Level 4 autonomous driving.
The agreement between Isuzu and Gatik is focused on the development of middle-mile autonomous driving—the medium-distance and intermediate logistics that connect individual distribution centers and stores—and will include the design and development of a new chassis (redundant chassis) that ensures safety when equipped with an autonomous driving system.
In April 2024, as part of its mid-term business plan, "ISUZU Transformation - Growth to 2030 (IX)," Isuzu committed to the establishment of three new business pillars for the future: (1) autonomous driving solutions, (2) connected services, and (3) carbon-neutral solutions.
With the partnership between Isuzu and Garik, they seek to launch a Level 4 autonomous commercial vehicle business in 2027.
Gatik is the only company that provides autonomous middle-mile logistics services in North America, using Class 3–7 autonomous driving trucks to deliver goods safely and efficiently.
The company is particularly focused on middle-mile B2B3 logistics for large companies, and in 2021 it also successfully completed fully driverless commercial middle-mile deliveries. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous driving trucks are currently commercially deployed in Texas and Arkansas in the US, and Ontario, Canada.
Through this partnership, Isuzu will enter the middle-mile autonomous driving business in the LCF4 segment, where the company has already established a market leadership position in the US and Canada.
This advanced technology will also allow Isuzu to actively address pressing issues facing the industry, such as the worsening driver shortage and rapidly increasing delivery needs in North America.
Moreover, the two companies will jointly design and develop a new chassis with safety performance that is compatible with the installation of an autonomous driving system to start mass production in 2027.
Visit the Gatik AI website to see the autonomous truck on the road and in traffic.
Information on the two companies may be found at www.isuzu.co.jp and www.gatik.ai.