Gatik's trucks already move goods with no human driver on board at all. The company just raised $200 million to make that a much bigger operation.
The Series D round was led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies. Millennium Management, ARK Invest and Intact Private Capital also participated.
From Fixed Routes to a Real Freight Network
Gatik's autonomous freight operation started small. Its first deployment with Loblaw in 2020 ran five vehicles on five fixed routes in Toronto.
The routes were short, repetitive and entirely predictable back then. TechCrunch reported the earliest trips ran under 10 miles.
That's changed substantially. Gatik now operates dynamic routes with dozens of pickup and drop-off points, covering distances up to 400 miles.
PepsiCo said its network can adjust stops in real time based on shifting demand. That flexibility didn't exist in Gatik's original fixed-route model at all.
The company has completed more than 85,000 fully driverless orders. Its on-time delivery rate sits at 99%.
The Nvidia Technology Behind the Trucks
Gatik's trucks run on Nvidia's DRIVE AGX platform for real-time processing of sensor data. That's the same category of onboard AI hardware MAIN has covered Nvidia expanding elsewhere this month.
Training happens differently than most people picture self-driving development. Gatik built its own simulation platform, called Arena, using Nvidia's Cosmos world models to generate synthetic driving environments.
That approach lets Gatik test rare, high-risk scenarios repeatedly without waiting to encounter them on real roads. MAIN covered Cosmos and similar world models extensively in coverage of China's robotics race this month.
Real Partners, Real Scale
PepsiCo signed a multi-year deal with Gatik in June.
The agreement deploys 41 fully driverless box trucks moving Frito-Lay products across Dallas, Phoenix and northwest Arkansas. That partnership actually began back in 2022, well before this year's expansion.
Loblaw's deal covers 50 autonomous trucks across Greater Toronto, serving more than 300 stores. The two companies logged over 150,000 deliveries with a safety driver on board before going fully driverless in 2022.
Isuzu Motors invested $30 million in Gatik in 2024. The companies are now jointly developing a redundant chassis, meant as a backup if the autonomous driving software fails.
Mass production is targeted to start in 2027.
What This Means for Miami
Middle-mile freight moves goods between distribution centers and stores, rather than directly to consumers.
That's exactly the kind of logistics work running through South Florida's ports and distribution hubs daily. PortMiami and the region's warehouse networks depend on that same basic function at massive scale.
Gatik's technology isn't operating in Florida yet. Its current footprint stays limited to Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and Canada.
For Miami's logistics and freight companies, this is still worth tracking closely.
A driverless model proving out at PepsiCo and Loblaw's scale matters here. It's the kind of technology regional distribution networks eventually have to evaluate directly.
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