Truckers Replaced By Driverless Delivery As Automation Revolution Begins

Dozens of driverless trucks are hitting the road as industries rush toward automation. PepsiCo is partnering with autonomous vehicle startup Gatik to rollout a fleet of 35 driverless trucks, Wall Street Journal reported…

Daily Caller News Foundation StaffJun 8, 20263 min read

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Dozens of driverless trucks are hitting the road as industries rush toward automation.

PepsiCo is partnering with autonomous vehicle startup Gatik to rollout a fleet of 35 driverless trucks, Wall Street Journal reported Monday. It’s reportedly the first time a U.S. company disclosed using autonomous trucks on public highways.

The 26,000-pound vehicle featured by WSJ is one of many driverless trucks designed by Gatik with embedded cameras, radar, and lidar technology. The startup secured $600 million in revenue through multiyear contacts with multiple companies, according to WSJ.

“These operations that we’re running today are real,” PepsiCo Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Jim Farrell said. “They are running in multiple markets in a live network, not like some experimental test environment.”

PepsiCo and Gatik did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Some of PepsiCo’s thousands of truckers are represented by unions such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which have historically opposed the autonomous vehicle industry. Teamsters reportedly spent

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over $2,500,000 on lobbying in 2025.

“The Teamsters Union strongly opposes the recently announced partnership between PepsiCo and Gatik. Driverless trucks are a clear and present danger to good-paying jobs and the safety and infrastructure of our local communities,” a Teamsters spokesperson told the DCNF. “Americans are increasingly and vocally opposed to the rollout of these reckless machines. Delivery drivers at PepsiCo and their families rely on the good union wages and benefits of this core American trade that companies like Gatik are trying to destroy. The Teamsters will continue to fight for our members and stand up to greedy corporations putting profits over people.”

The autonomous vehicle industry has previously struggled with safety issues. Waymo recalled over 1,200 self-driving taxis following various collisions in May 2025, and Tesla recalled over 360,000 self-driving cars in Feb. 2023.

Farrell said the driverless trucks’ “on-time arrival performance” reached 99%, minus uncontrollable variables like traffic and weather, according to WSJ. The Federal Highway Administration suggests that shippers and receivers should expect truckers to arrive on-time approximately 95% of the time.

Multiple other industries are rushing to use artificial intelligence for automation. For example, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly discussed raising $100 billion to purchase manufacturing companies and use AI to streamline their processes through “Project Prometheus” last March.

Big Tech’s AI spending will likely hit $5.3 trillion in fiscal years 2025 through 2030, Goldman Sachs projected on June 3. All of this follows Pew Research Center’s Sept. 2025 survey estimating that over half of Americans are more worried than excited for AI’s ever-growing role in everyday life.

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