Isuzu North America Corp. and Gatik have agreed to collaborate on a project to develop and evaluate fully autonomous medium-duty trucks.
Isuzu is a manufacturer of low cab forward trucks in the U.S. and Canadian markets. Gatik provides automated on-road transportation networks for B2B middle-mile logistics. This collaboration will accelerate the commercialization of autonomous delivery fleets while contributing to a safer and more sustainable logistics community in the future, according to the companies.
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 thanks 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. “Isuzu N-Series trucks have been bestsellers in their class in the combined U.S.-Canadian market for 35 consecutive years, making them an ideal fit for our solution.”
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 truck platform to address these critical industry pain points, ensuring retailers can maintain capacity, lower operating costs and keep delivery times short.
