PepsiCo announced on June 12, 2026 a multi-year strategic partnership with Gatik AI Inc., a developer of autonomous middle-mile freight systems. Gatik will operate PepsiCo's regional transportation networks across North America — daily movements between production facilities, warehouses, and distribution centers. The deal formalizes and extends a deployment that has been running since 2022.
Key takeaways
- Multi-year strategic agreement between PepsiCo and Gatik AI signed in June 2026
- Gatik already operates for PepsiCo in Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas
- On-time delivery rate: over 98% across current Gatik operations
- Trucks serve regional networks between facilities and distribution centers — driverless
- First Gatik deployment with PepsiCo dates to 2022 — the longest commercial partnership of its kind in the sector
What Gatik delivers
Gatik specializes in middle-mile — the segment of the supply chain between a production facility or warehouse and a distribution center. It's a demanding segment: routes are repeatable and well-defined, but span both highways and surface streets. Operations must be reliable 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Gatik system offers dynamic route orchestration: PepsiCo can modify trip plans in real time — adding or removing stops, responding to demand shifts, and adapting to activity levels across distribution centers. This separates it from systems operating on fixed, preprogrammed routes.
Gatik vehicles operate end-to-end: from pickup, through the highway, to final delivery. The company reports over 98% on-time delivery in current operations — a figure PepsiCo has been verifying in daily operations since 2022.
Why PepsiCo, and why now
PepsiCo manages one of the largest private vehicle fleets in North America. Its products reach consumers more than one billion times a day in over 200 countries. Regional networks are a chokepoint: they require frequent, regular trips, often in areas where driver recruitment is difficult.
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.
— Jim Farrell, senior vice president of supply chain at PepsiCo
Gautam Narang, co-founder and CEO of Gatik, stated: "Autonomous trucking has reached commercial scale when it operates inside one of the most demanding supply chains on the planet."
Competition and industry context
The autonomous middle-mile segment is consolidating. Waymo Via ended commercial operations in 2024. Aurora Innovation focuses on long-haul highway-to-highway routes. Einride operates in Europe and select US locations. Gatik occupied a niche others exited: repeatable, urban-suburban regional routes with high frequency and without the need for full highway autonomy.
The PepsiCo deployment is the longest commercial partnership in Gatik's history and one of the largest operational use cases for autonomous trucks in the world. Middle-mile autonomy works here not as an experiment, but as part of the daily operations of a global FMCG manufacturer.
Why this matters
The Gatik–PepsiCo agreement is a milestone in the history of autonomous trucking — not because of technology breakthroughs, but because of the scale and length of the commercial relationship.
For years, the autonomous truck market produced impressive demonstrations and spectacular failures. Uber Freight, Convoy, Aurora, TuSimple — companies appeared, raised billions, and disappeared or shrank dramatically. Gatik chose a different path: smaller, repeatable routes, lower speeds, controlled operating environment — and built trust over years, not quarters.
The fact that PepsiCo is expanding the agreement after four years of daily operation is a stronger signal than any press release about a "breakthrough." Global FMCG supply chains are sensitive to reliability and do not tolerate risk in the long term. A 98%+ on-time rate over four years convinced the supply chain team of one of the world's largest companies.
What's next
- Gatik has announced expansion to new markets in North America — specific locations were not disclosed, but target regions include areas with difficult driver labor markets, such as the US Southwest.
- PepsiCo indicated the deployment fits into a broader supply chain automation strategy — the company is separately investing in warehouse automation and demand forecasting.
- Middle-mile autonomy and last-mile autonomy (deliveries to end customers) remain separate problems — Gatik does not enter last-mile, meaning drivers serving retail stores are not directly affected by this deployment.
Sources
- The Robot Report — Gatik to bring autonomous freight to PepsiCo's North American supply chain
- Gatik AI — gatik.ai
