Kodiak Robotics just announced a partnership with Berlin-based driverless car-sharing startup Vay to enhance its self-driving trucks with remote-driving tech.
The two have been working together since 2023, with Kodiak’s trucks already making autonomous deliveries for Atlas Energy Solutions in Texas and New Mexico’s Permian Basin.
This remote-driving layer, also known as teleoperations, acts as a safety net and operational backup for Kodiak’s autonomous system. Human operators can remotely control Kodiak trucks in low-speed or complex scenarios using Vay’s teleoperations rig — a setup with a steering wheel, screens, and vehicle controls that work over low-latency connections. 
Kodiak’s proprietary “assisted autonomy” system still holds the reins and limits what remote human drivers can do. The system keeps control, checking every move to make sure things stay on track.
Kodiak CTO Andreas Wendel broke down the setup:
“It’s not a direct system where you just turn the steering wheel and you flip a truck,” Kodiak’s CTO Andreas Wendel said, explaining how the autonomous system handles much of the driving. The remote driver, using Vay’s rig, tells the vehicle where to go, but Kodiak’s system still runs all its checks to keep it on track.
“Why is that important? Because we drive various different vehicles, from big semis to F-150s to military vehicles. They have different loads and sometimes they have a full trailer; sometimes an empty one; sometimes no trailer. And for our remote assistance personnel, it should feel exactly the same no matter what the load is. That’s what we achieve here,” Wendel said.
Kodiak’s trained commercial drivers use this tech in tricky spots, like construction zones or police-directed traffic.
The interest in remote-driving tech ramped up after Kodiak won a 2022 Army contract, which required remote operation for certain military use cases.
Kodiak initially tried building its own remote system but switched to Vay after discovering their proven tech in action.
Vay’s CEO Thomas von der Ohe said the company is expanding beyond car-sharing to build a global remote driving platform.
“I often describe it as a bit like how Amazon built AWS on the back of their Amazon success,” he said. “This is how we want to build out that global remote driving platform.”
Kodiak CEO Don Burnette added the assisted autonomy gives the company more flexibility across deliveries.
“No matter the maturity of an autonomous driving system, there are still scenarios that will benefit from human assistance, if only as a backup,” he said.
Kodiak targets commercial driverless truck deliveries on Texas highways by late 2026, now with real-time human backup ready to step in.
