Autonomous trucking has real-world operations today—and the developers have bold plans for commercialization within the next two years. This week, the Fleet Lead's Jeremy Wolfe is hosting interviews with four of the industry's autonomous developers.

Kodiak AI is a public autonomous truck developer with a focus on OEM-agnostic upfitting and edge computing. It achieved some of the first major autonomous milestones in recent years under its partnership with Atlas Energy. Here Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak AI, describes the state of autonomy today and outlines the company's achievements.

Here are the big stories from this week in trucking as of March 5:

• OEMs announced two new vocational trucks
• The Trump administration is changing independent contractor classification
• The Supreme Court is hearing arguments around broker liability
• Torc Robotics is moving autonomous hauls to Michigan
• Bot Auto is working with a broker for Texas hauls
• Diesel prices jumped 9 cents

Jim Mullen is replacing Jim Ward as president of the Truckload Carriers Association in early April. How will Mullen use his deep trucking industry experience—as a former mega-carrier executive, past FMCSA acting administrator, and leader in autonomous trucking and the Clean Freight Coalition—to guide the truckload sector through a massive regulatory shift?

FleetOwner's Josh Fisher sat down with Mullen at TCA's Truckload 2026 to discuss his "360-degree" perspective and his strategy for navigating trucking's new era of enforcement and economic recovery.

Timestamps:

• 0:40 - Industry sentiment
• 4:15 - Career background
• 7:30 - Lobbying and regulatory relations
• 10:30 - Impact of enforcement
• 13:20 - Hours of Service (HOS) pilot
• 16:00 - Clean Freight Coalition's future
• 24:20 - Autonomous technology
• 27:50 - Advice for carriers

Here are the headlines from this week in trucking as of February 26:

• The Supreme Court struck down IEEPA tariffs
• FMCSA is continuing its driver qualification crackdown
• Daimler revealed its next heavy-duty engine
• Spot rates increased over 2 cents
• Diesel prices jumped 10 cents

As EPA's new NOx standards creep nearer, Daimler Truck North America this month revealed its next generation of complaint heavy-duty engines. The Detroit-branded Gen 6 diesel engines will be available in 13-, 15-, and 16-liter options that meet the looming 35-milligram NOx limit, and will power future Freightliner and Western Star trucks.

In the historic Detroit Manufacturing Plant, FleetOwner's Josh Fisher talks with David Carson, SVP of sales and marketing at DTNA, about the new engine, the state of on-highway and vocational trucking, and Carson's advice for fleets. To avoid a repeat of the 2022 capacity crunch and manage the rising maintenance costs of aging equipment, Carson advises fleet managers to "order early, order often" rather than waiting for perfect economic certainty.

The relocation of manufacturing back to the U.S. could be a boon for domestic freight. The pandemic recently spurred business interest in reshoring, but tariff volatility also paralyzed many investment decisions. Rosemary Coates, executive director of the Reshoring Institute, explains the current state of U.S. reshoring.

Timestamps:

• 00:42 - The Reshoring Institute's mission
• 04:00 - Global supply chain vulnerability
• 06:30 - Tariff volatility and business paralysis
• 12:45 - Manufacturing moving to Mexico

Here are the trucking industry's headlines this week, as of February 12:

• EPA finalizes removal of trucks’ greenhouse gas regulations
• FMCSA makes another attempt to tighten non-domiciled CDLs
• TCA's next president will be Jim Mullen
• In fuel, diesel prices rose by 1 cent

Modern work trucks have become very advanced, and OEMs' strategies to manage those trucks even more advanced. Ford Pro's Eric Rice, general manager of U.S. fleet sales, details the industry's latest trends: driver assistance, predictive maintenance, the technician shortage, and more.

Timestamps:

• 02:23 - Total cost of ownership
• 07:35 - Advanced safety tech
• 11:35 - The technician shortage
• 16:30 - Machine learning for actionable data
• 18:30 - Race to zero downtime