Gatik’s deployment with Walmart in Arkansas made history as the first time an autonomous trucking company removed the safety driver from a commercial delivery route on the middle mile anywhere in the world
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Gatik has been named by TIME as a Best Invention of 2022 on its prestigious annual list. The company was selected for its long-term commercial partnership with Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas where it moves customer orders between a warehouse and a Neighborhood Market in its fleet of fully driverless box trucks. The milestone represents the first time that an autonomous trucking company has removed the safety driver from a middle-mile commercial delivery route anywhere in the world.
A few months after launching fully driverless deliveries with Walmart, Gatik expanded its fully driverless solution with Canada’s leading food and pharmacy retailer, Loblaw Companies Limited. Gatik is now moving select online grocery orders, for Loblaw’s PC Express service, with a fleet of multi-temperature autonomous box trucks.
To compile the list, TIME solicited nominations from TIME’s editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process, paying special attention to growing fields – such as the electric vehicle industry, green energy, and the metaverse. TIME then evaluated each contender on a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.
“We are humbled to have been named to the 2022 TIME Best Inventions list,” said Gautam Narang, Gatik’s CEO and co-founder. “We are especially proud that the selection honors the successful application of our solution in real-world, commercial environments. It’s only when groundbreaking technology becomes operationalized that its true impact can be felt by the end consumer. Recognition on TIME’s prestigious list belongs to the entire team who are working tirelessly to ensure the true advantages of autonomy can be felt across our customer base today.”
Unlike other autonomous trucking efforts, Gatik’s fully driverless deployments are not one-time demonstrations. Gatik’s trucks are safely completing frequent, revenue-generating, daily runs in a range of conditions on public roads, demonstrating the commercial and technical advantages of fully driverless operations in the middle mile, B2B sector. Gatik serves Fortune 500 customers in multiple states including Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, as well as in Ontario, Canada.
Gatik’s rapid commercial progress comes as a result of the company’s exclusive focus on fixed, repeatable delivery routes to maximize safety and efficiency, using proprietary, commercial-grade autonomous technology that is purpose-built for the middle mile. By constraining the operating environment, Gatik has been able to achieve the safe removal of the safety driver much more quickly compared to other applications, such as passenger transportation, long-haul trucking or B2C delivery.
In addition to being named as one of the TIME Best Inventions 2022, Gatik has made the FreightTech 25 2022 list; been named to Forbes’ list of America’s Best Startup Employers 2022 and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas 2022 list; included on Business Insider’s Rising Stars of the Self-Driving Industry list; and named to Inc. Magazine’s Female Founders List in 2022.
