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PepsiCo has partnered with autonomous truck company Gatik to bring driverless freight into its North America F&B supply chain, marking the largest commercial autonomous freight deployment to date.

The partnership aims to strengthen PepsiCo’s supply chain network through improved delivery consistency, added capacity and enhanced customer service across a complex, high-volume operation. Gatik is already operating its AI-powered driverless trucks for PepsiCo across Texas, Arizona and Arkansas.

It focuses on PepsiCo’s high-frequency, time-sensitive regional transport networks, where products are transported daily from sites to site.

The trucks are designed for end-to-end deliveries across highways and surface streets, with route orchestration capabilities built for complex regional logistics networks that span hundreds of pick-up and drop-off locations.

These capabilities enable PepsiCo to modify its route plans in response to daily operational needs, including adding or removing stops, and adapting to shifts in demand and activity levels across distribution centres. In turn, this reduces variability, improves on-time performance and adds capacity without requiring major operational changes.

Jim Farrell, senior vice president of supply chain at PepsiCo, said: “Serving our vast network of customers requires a supply chain that is safe, reliable and built for the future”.

“Gatik is already operating inside our networks and brings the autonomous freight technology, commercial experience and scale we need to strengthen service, add capacity and move products more consistently for our customers.”

Guatam Narang, CEO and co-founder of Gatik, added: “Autonomous trucking has reached commercial scale when it operates inside one of the most demanding supply chains on the planet”.

“Our autonomous trucks are already moving products every day across Texas, Arizona and Arkansas, and this partnership is proof that Gatik is becoming central to how the world’s largest companies move goods.”