Asked by Evercore’s John Sager how he assesses Kodiak’s three end markets and decides where to focus his time and the company’s capital, Burnette went back to the data and operating-system foundations he and his team built in the late 2010s. Models that need to learn the basics of navigating different environments, he said, use the same core data set and then adjust to unstructured environments (as in Kodiak’s work with the military or with Atlas Energy Solutions hauling tens of thousands of tons of sand in the Permian basin) or to the structured settings of long-haul driving.

Burnette said his top priority in recent years was to get trucks in the hands of customers—Atlas in particular—which meant that his time was spent more on the industrial side of the business. With the Atlas relationship on pace to reach 100 vehicles by next summer and Kodiak having picked up “incredibly valuable learnings” about customer-owned fleets, that focus has recently been primarily directed at long-haul work, which has the largest total value of Kodiak’s three possible markets.

A key milestone is close on that front: Kodiak said October 6 that its measure of autonomy readiness now stands at 96% (up three points from the end of August and 12 points since February) as its team has progressed through its testing and validation checklists. That puts the unsupervised and driverless Ikea launch well within reach.

And while the long-haul safety and development work won’t be done when Kodiak’s measure hits 100%, there’s a chance that Burnette and his team will again be spending more time on its other markets soon. That’s the nature of the business model they’ve put in place.

“Sometimes, you surge into a program. Sometimes, there’s a little bit of a lull that allows you to focus on some other things,” Burnette said. “They’re all kind of existing at the same time, but your focus shifts strategically [and] sequentially from one to the other as necessary in order to continue to push in all directions.”

Volvo launches Texas operations for Warp platform

Other autonomous-driving efforts are also making progress in parts of the country that have laid the regulatory foundation for such efforts. Among them are Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ partnership with artificial-intelligence platform developer Waabi, which this week announced that it has started autonomous operations for open-source freight network Warp along the Dallas-Houston corridor Kodiak plans to start running soon.

Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ purpose-built trucks and Waabi’s software are taking aim at both the truckload and less-than-truckload markets served by Warp, which counts Walmart and DoorDash as clients. The companies’ work on the Dallas-Houston route, which will still feature an observer in the driver’s seat, will give them information to help them quickly expand.

“We are bringing autonomous freight into customer operations in one of logistics’ most demanding segments,” Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, said in a statement. “This shows how quickly our ecosystem can adapt to new customers and more complex operations. What we learn on the Dallas–Houston corridor will help us strengthen our partnership and continuously improve the ecosystem as we scale.”