The U.S. army’s lengthy, usually winding street to rolling out autonomous autos has, so far, largely disenchanted energetic technologists desperate to see human drivers eradicated from fight eventualities. Though the Pentagon’s largest analysis company has spent the higher a part of two decades fidgeting with autonomous tech, now the Department of Defense is popping to a California-based mostly startup firm to quick observe its use of autonomous autos for “high-risk” missions.

This week, autonomous trucking startup Kodiak Robotics revealed it received a two-year, $49.9 million army contract from the Department of Defense to assist create and deploy future autonomous floor autos able to finishing up reconnaissance and surveillance. In concept, these autos must be able to traversing advanced terrains in numerous circumstances the place GPS availability is likely to be restricted. That’s fairly a tall activity for a agency who, earlier than as we speak, was greatest recognized for self-driving semis hauling Ikea furniture.

If profitable, Kodiak believes its new autonomous reconnaissance autos may scale back dangers to troopers who in any other case would put themselves at risk working behind enemy traces. The actual design and look of these autos, so far, stays unclear. Outside of the sneakier use circumstances, Kodiak says its autonomous tech may function a “technical pipeline” to allow fast deployment of autonomous tech throughout the army.

“I started Kodiak because I believe autonomous technology can save lives, and helping the U.S. Army develop driverless vehicles for the most challenging operating environments fits perfectly with that goal,” Kodiak Robotics founder and CEO Don Burnette stated in a press release.

Kodiak in the end beat out 33 different opponents as a part of a contest hosted by the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit on behalf of the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle program. Though driverless autos on industrial roads are at the moment caught in a security and regulatory limbo stopping them from hitting public roads, the DoD says the precise tech making its means by way of the sector has nonetheless advanced quickly in recent times.

“There has been a revolution in the techniques and capabilities of un-crewed ground vehicles occurring in the private sector over the past two decades,” Kevin O’Brien, the Defense Innovation Unit’ Technical Director for Autonomy stated in a statement. “We’re eager to bring these matured technologies back into the Department of Defense, where initial work was inspired by the DARPA Grand Challenges.”

By DARPA challenges, O’Brien’s referring to a collection of exams performed within the sandy outskirts of the Mojave Desert 18 years in the past the place 15 early “autonomous vehicles” competed in opposition to one another to navigate by way of a 142-mile course. All of them failed, many miserably. Still, that problem, which pulled collectively a number of the brightest minds in autonomy know-how on the time, is commonly credited with spearheading then-nascent autonomous car tech right into a budding startup tradition. In reality, a number of the artistic forces behind lots of these early sand-filled hunks of junk ended up becoming leaders of their fields.

Awarding a significant contract to one among these burgeoning startups, in that sense, means the sphere has come full circle. Kodiak and the DIU, according to TechCrunch, are at the moment constructing take a look at tracks that replicate the kind of terrain these autonomous autos would possibly see in fight eventualities. Kodiak can be reportedly constructing out a customized, human-pushed ATV for the army supposed for testing and information assortment.

The U.S. army’s curiosity in autonomous tech extends far past floor autos. Earlier this yr, a DARPA-owned UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter outfitted with an experimental Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) was in a position to efficiently full a 30 minute take a look at flight with no pilot, an enormous milestone within the aerial autonomy area. Meanwhile, in some simulated occasions, autonomous fighter jet systems have already outperformed human pilots barreling by way of dogfights.