Who’s driving this delivery truck? Nobody

More than 50 years have passed since the road rage thriller film Duel aired, and we still don’t know who’s behind the wheel of that menacing truck — it could have been anyone… or no one. (Yes, film buffs, we glimpse a boot and arms) It's since made some drivers a little uneasy when passing a truck.

So would it ease your mind to know that, literally, “no one” is driving the truck next to you?

It’s increasingly possible, thanks to the autonomous shipping company Gatik.

"Fully driverless means exactly that: there is no driver or safety observer in the vehicle," Gatik told The Hustle.

Retailers and grocers that run their own trucks are shipping more each year, and replacing a driver costs them $12k+ in 2025, according to the National Private Truck Council.

How it started

Gatik said they “started with an existing customer problem: retailers and grocers needed a more reliable way to move goods through the regional networks between distribution centers and stores.”

The trucks, which remotely alert for help when needed, serve urban, semi-urban, and highway settings, focusing on short B2B hauls — moving goods between distribution centers, stores, and fulfillment centers.

Within five years after its formation in 2017, the startup:

• Raised $4.5m in seed funding
  
• Landed Walmart as its first big customer
  
• Raised a $25m Series A
  
• Ran the world's first driverless middle-mile deliveries for Walmart, per Gatik
  
• Raised an $85m Series B led by Koch, bringing its total to $114.5m
  
• Expanded to Texas and Canada

Gatik’s main focus is on high-frequency repeatable routes. That attention to a niche gap in shipping worked.

How it's going

Today, Gatik says its biggest hurdle is scaling safety across its vehicles, routes, and customer networks, while working with regulators and lawmakers across all levels of government. But its track record since 2017 has given it momentum.

Now, Gatik:

• Runs driverless trucks in multiple regions in North America
  
• Has PepsiCo and Loblaw as customers
  
• Completed 85k+ driverless orders, 99%+ on time
  
• Booked $600m+ in contracted revenue
  
• Raised a $200m Series D

“Human-driven and autonomous trucking will coexist for a long time,” Gatik said. So chances are there won’t be a duel — just a truck minding its own business.