AUTONOMOUS TRUCK COO JAMES REED CONTRADICTS HIMSELF MUST WATCH THIS

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]The move. Yep.

[00:00:01]Um.

[00:00:03]But there's a shortage of drivers in the industry. We all know that. For sure.

[00:00:07]>> There there are I was with, you know, Craig Harper from JB Hunt yesterday out in Dallas, and I don't remember what the study was, but he cited a study that said something like, and I'm paraphrasing here, by 2035 we'll need another 400,000 drivers.

[00:00:22]I seen the trucker that's in the industry, and there is no such thing as a shortage. [snorts] As a If anything, there's a influx because whenever you get to these shippers and receivers, there's always a wait to get loaded or unloaded. Like that problem's not going to be solved by by ginning up additional drivers. And so autonomy I think really serves to bolster the driver community in a way that's super meaningful, but uh the replacement of the driver is not the issue at the end of the day.

[00:00:52]>> Got it.

[00:00:54]Hm.

[00:00:56]For for you and when you guys think about autonomy, is it cuz maybe everybody doesn't understand what an autonomous truck world looks like, right? Is there a driver still in the truck, right? Is there like a like like when someone flies a plane, right? That plane is flying automatically, but there's still a pilot.

[00:01:10]>> Yeah. Excellent analogy. Right? To take off and land. Is that how autonomous trucks look like? It should.

[00:01:18]>> Give us an idea what that looks and like how that directly impacts Hey, he scratched his head like, damn, that was good. Like, man, that's that's on point.

[00:01:26]>> those CDL holders right now. Yeah, for sure. So it's interesting at Kodiak, we have a bunch of CDL holders that are safety drivers, right? So today our trucks are on the road uh every day moving freight uh in in some pretty uh popular commercial lanes, and we have a a driver whose hands are hovering over the wheel, but ostensibly that truck is driving itself for most of that move.

[00:01:52]And so that's happening today. I like the the comparison you made to airlines.

[00:01:56]It's very similar. But to be clear, the goal is to have drivers out of the truck.

[00:02:02]I and I solely a robot I said I said a air horn.

[00:02:11]The goal is to get you truckers up out of the truck, man. He said it.

[00:02:16]Not me.

[00:02:19]Essentially they it's a robot but it's a computer robot driving the truck from point to point.