Kodiak AI has completed an autonomous trucking program in Ohio, marking its first operational deployment outside the Southern United States and extending driverless operations into a key Midwest freight corridor.

The program, conducted in partnership with DriveOhio, included on-road demonstrations along Interstate 70 as well as controlled testing at the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, Ohio. The effort also involved the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Indiana Department of Transportation.

The company says the pilot represents an expansion of its operational design domain beyond the Sunbelt, where most autonomous trucking deployments have been concentrated due to more predictable weather and road conditions.

The Ohio initiative brought together transportation officials, policymakers and industry stakeholders from Ohio and Indiana to observe driverless longhaul operations and discuss deployment, safety and regulatory considerations.

Kodiak also demonstrated its Level 4 autonomous capabilities in a series of real-world scenarios, including navigating construction zones, merging onto highways, passing slower vehicles and responding to disabled vehicles and pedestrians.

Additional demonstrations were held for first responders at the Indiana Department of Transportation’s traffic management center in Indianapolis.

“Our work with DriveOhio marks an important step toward scaling autonomous trucking nationwide,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak. “This program highlights not only the maturity of our technology, but also its ability to operate safely and effectively beyond the sunbelt, in new environments that are critical to the U.S. supply chain.”