Tech company opens first autonomous trucking facility in Houston

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Houston is now home to Kodiak and Ryder's autonomous "truckport" facility. Photo courtesy of Kodiak

In a major step toward driverless freight trucks hitting Houston-area roads, a facility for loading and unloading autonomous trucks opened recently near George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport

Miami-based transportation and logistics company Ryder operates the “truckport” for Mountain View, California-based Kodiak Robotics, which runs a network of autonomous freight trucks. The facility, located at 888 E. Airtex Dr., opened in December. It’s next to a Ryder maintenance center.

“The truckport can currently receive several truckloads per day, and the size of the Ryder facility provides the opportunity to scale much larger than that,” says Daniel Goff, director of external affairs at Kodiak.

“The number of employees stationed at the facility fluctuates day by day,” Goff adds. “Kodiak’s team that staffs the facility in this initial phase operates on a flexible schedule to align with the needs of the trucks that are utilizing the truckport.”

The Houston site is the first Kodiak truckport to be located at a Ryder facility. It serves freight routes to and from Houston, Dallas, and Oklahoma City.

Kodiak currently operates all routes with drivers on board, including its Houston-Dallas and Houston-Oklahoma City routes. The company plans to roll out its first driverless operations on Dallas-Houston route later this year, with the new Houston facility serving as a launchpad.

“Ryder’s industry-leading fleet services and vast footprint of service locations makes it an ideal partner as we scale autonomous trucks,” Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak, says in a news release. “Expanding our network of truckports with Ryder will enable us to operate autonomous trucks at scale with our customers.”

The most recent version of Kodiak’s truck debuted in Las Vegas at the recent 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Kodiak says the truck is equipped with safety-oriented software and hardware (including braking, steering and sensors).

Kodiak’s sixth-generation truck builds on the company’s track record of real-world testing, which includes carrying 5,000 loads over more than 2.5 million miles.

Founded in 2018, Kodiak has been delivering freight in Texas since mid-2019, including on the Houston-Dallas route. Kodiak announced in 2022 that it had teamed up with Swedish retailer IKEA to pilot autonomous freight deliveries in Texas between the IKEA warehouse in Baytown and the IKEA store in Frisco.

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Kodiak Robotics unveiled its driverless semi-truck technology this month, which is expected to hit Texas roads later this year. Photo via Kodiak

Driverless semi-truck tech to launch between Houston and Dallas later this year

coming soon

Kodiak Robotics is scaling up its driverless semi truck, which will initially carry cargo on a Houston-to-Dallas route that’s set to formally launch this year.

The most recent version of Kodiak’s truck debuted in Las Vegas at the recent 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Mountain View, California-based Kodiak Robotics says the truck is equipped with safety-critical software and hardware (including braking, steering and sensors).

Kodiak’s sixth-generation truck builds on the company’s five years of real-world testing, which includes carrying 5,000 loads over more than 2.5 million miles.

“We’re the first and only company to have developed a feature-complete driverless semitruck with the level of automotive-grade safety redundancy necessary to deploy on public roads,” Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak, says in a news release.

“Over the course of 2.5 million miles, we’ve successfully demonstrated that our self-driving trucks can withstand the harsh environment of long-haul trucking from both a platform integrity and a software perspective,” he adds. “This truck fundamentally demonstrates that we’ve done the work necessary to safely handle driverless operations.”

Among the highlights of the sixth-generation truck are:

  • A pneumatic braking system controlled by Kodiak’s proprietary software.
  • A redundant steering system.
  • A proprietary safety computer.
  • A redundant power system.
  • Proprietary SensorPods for housing sensors.
  • Microphones designed to detect the presence of the sirens of emergency vehicles and other suspicious sounds.
  • An advanced communication system.

Founded in 2018, Kodiak has been delivering freight in Texas since mid-2019, including a Houston-to-Dallas route. Kodiak announced in 2022 that it had teamed up with Swedish retailer IKEA to pilot autonomous freight deliveries in Texas between the IKEA warehouse in Baytown and the IKEA store in Frisco.

IKEA and Kodiak Robotics have a new pilot program. Photo courtesy of Kodiak

IKEA to test self-driving deliveries between Houston and Dallas

on the go

A California-based driving trucking company has announced a new partnership with IKEA to pilot autonomous freight deliveries in Texas.

Kodiak Robotics and IKEA agreed on a pilot program announced today that will transport IKEA products seven days a week between the IKEA Distribution Center in Baytown and the IKEA Store in Frisco.

"We are proud to be working with Kodiak to achieve our ambitious goals of being at the forefront of innovation and building capabilities for future transportation," says Dariusz Mroczek, category area transport manager of IKEA Supply Chain Operations, in a news release. "Kodiak's technology will contribute towards our objective to put the driver in focus in the transition towards automated transportation and towards our road safety agenda."

The pilot program will flesh out Kodiak's technology, and each vehicle will have a professional safety truck driver behind the wheel to oversee the autonomous delivery.

"IKEA and Kodiak share a commitment to putting safety first," sats Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak Robotics, in the release. "Together we can enhance safety, improve working conditions for drivers, and create a more sustainable freight transportation system. Adopting autonomous trucking technology can improve drivers' quality of life by focusing on the local driving jobs most prefer to do. We look forward to working with the IKEA carrier partners to bring these benefits to the IKEA supply chain."

Founded in 2018, Kodiak has been delivering freight daily in Texas since mid-2019, which includes a Dallas to Houston, adding a Dallas to San Antonio round last year.

"Dallas will be our home base for testing and operations for the foreseeable future," Burnette said in 2019. "Kodiak plans to continue refining and testing its trucks until the last truck-involved accident happens on public roads."

The company picked Texas for its truck tests, in part, because of the "warm welcome" extended by Gov. Greg Abbott, TxDOT, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and other segments of the public sector, Burnette told InnovationMap.

In addition, Burnette says, Kodiak chose Texas "because of its great people, freight-rich economy, reasonable regulatory structure, and robust infrastructure."

The company wants to make Texas "the home of self-driving trucks." Photo courtesy of Kodiak Robotics

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Houston company awarded $2.5B NASA contract to support astronaut health and space missions

space health

Houston-based technology and energy solution company KBR has been awarded a $2.5 billion NASA contract to support astronaut health and reduce risks during spaceflight missions.

Under the terms of the Human Health and Performance Contract 2, KBR will provide support services for several programs, including the Human Research Program, International Space Station Program, Commercial Crew Program, Artemis campaign and others. This will include ensuring crew health, safety, and performance; occupational health services and risk mitigation research for future flights.

“This contract reinforces KBR’s leadership in human spaceflight operations and highlights our expertise in supporting NASA’s vision for space exploration,” Mark Kavanaugh, KBR president of defense, intel and space, said in a news release.

The five-year contract will begin Nov. 1 with possible extension option periods that could last through 2035. The total estimated value of the base period plus the optional periods is $3.6 billion, and the majority of the work will be done at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

“We’re proud to support NASA’s critical work on long-duration space travel, including the Artemis missions, while contributing to solutions that will help humans live and thrive beyond Earth,” Kavanaugh adde in the news release.

Recently, KBR and Axiom Space completed three successful crewed underwater tests of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at Johnson Space Center. The tests were part of an effort to help both companies work to support NASA's return to the Moon, according to a release.

KBR also landed at No. 3 in a list of Texas businesses on Time and Statista’s new ranking of the country’s best midsize companies.

UH receives $1M grant to advance research on rare pediatric disorder

peds research

The University of Houston has received a two-year, $1.1 million gift from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation to advance research on a rare genetic disorder that can lead to both deafness and blindness in children, known as Usher Syndrome.

The current grant will support the research of UH biomedical engineering professors Muna Naash and Muayyad Al-Ubaidi, who work in the Laboratory for Retinal Molecular and Cellular Biology and Gene Therapy in the Cullen College of Engineering. The professors have published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

Naash and Al-Ubaidi’s research focuses on mutations in the USH2A gene, which is crucial to the development and maintenance of the inner ear and retina. The work was inspired by a chance meeting that changed Naash’s life.

“Our work began more than two decades ago when I met a young boy who had lost his both his vision and hearing, and it made me realize just how precious those two senses are, and it truly touched my heart,” Naash said in a news release from UH. “Thanks to the generosity of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, we can now take the next critical steps in our research and bring hope to families affected by this challenging condition.”

The grant from the foundation comes in addition to a previous $1.6 million award from the National Eye Institute in 2023, which helped create a research platform for innovative gene therapy approaches for the condition.

Usher Syndrome affects 25,000 people in the U.S. and is the most common genetic condition worldwide that impacts both hearing and vision in children. Currently, there is no cure for any of the main three types of the condition. UH believes support from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation will help elevate research, advance real-world solutions in health and improve lives.

“What makes UH such a powerful hub for research is not just its own resources, but also its location and strategic partnerships, including those with the Texas Medical Center,” Al-Ubaidi said in a news release. “We have access to an extraordinary network, and that kind of collaborative environment is essential when tackling complex diseases like Usher syndrome, where no single lab can do it alone.”

Members-only coworking club Switchyards to open first Houston location

Where to Work

An innovative take on the coworking space is coming to Houston. Switchyards will open its first location in the Bayou City on Monday, September 29.

Located in the former Buffalo Exchange at 2901 S Shepherd Drive, Switchyards is well located on the border of Montrose, River Oaks, and Upper Kirby. Founded in Atlanta, the Houston location will join 30 outposts in cities such as Austin, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, and Nashville.

Unlike WeWork, which caters to companies looking for office space for groups of employees, Switchyards pitches itself as a club for individuals who want to get a little work done away from their home offices.

“Working from home all the time is pretty lonesome,” Switchyards creative director Brandon Hinman says. “It feels good to have places to get out and mix it up. To change paces and change scenery.”

Switchyards facilitates that change of scenery with an environment that blends touches of hotel lobbies, college libraries, and coffee shops. As seen in the photos of the company’s other location, the furniture is a mix of desks, comfy chairs, and couches for individuals or small groups. It’s a far cry from the cube farms of the Office Space era.

“They tend to be historic, textured, layered,” Hinman says about the company’s locations. “A lot of really good furniture. Really thoughtful for getting a couple hours of work done.”

Each location features fast wi-fi, plenty of electrical outlets, and good quality coffee and tea. All 250 members have 24/7 access to the space. And by choosing the real estate they lease carefully, Switchyards keeps its membership price to $100 per month.

“Packaging it together like that and opening in these neighborhoods where people actually live has been pretty magical,” Hinman says. "The big opportunity, I think, is that 90 percent of our members have never had a shared space before. It is unlocking a new thing for people.”

Those who are interested in learning more can sign up at switchyards.com/houston-tx to get early access to memberships and an invite to a sneak peek party.

Memberships go on sale Thursday, September 25 at 10 am. Switchyards notes that the last 14 clubs have sold out on day one.

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This story originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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