Automotive News has named Arjun Narang, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Gatik, a 2023 Rising Star. The prestigious award recognizes innovative and influential leaders in the automotive space who are making significant, industry-defining contributions.

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Arjun Narang, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Gatik, honored as a 2023 Automotive News Rising Star. (Photo: Business Wire)

Narang, a pioneer in the field of robotics and autonomous vehicles (AVs), was recognized for his leadership role in the development and commercial deployment of Gatik’s industry-leading autonomous driving technology, which has been deployed to create a more reliable and efficient supply chain for North America’s largest grocers, retailers, distributors, e-commerce platforms, and consumer packaged goods companies.

Over the past 12 months, Narang has led Gatik through a period of unparalleled success. In March of this year, Gatik announced a commercial collaboration with Kroger, America’s largest grocer. Under the agreement, Gatik’s medium-duty autonomous box trucks transport fresh, customer-favorite products from a Kroger Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC) in Dallas, Texas, to multiple retail locations. Earlier this month, Gatik announced a long-term partnership with Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies, to deploy Gatik’s autonomous refrigerated box trucks within Tyson’s Northwest Arkansas logistics network to build a more responsive and flexible supply chain. Narang’s deep technical expertise and innovative leadership approach to solving complex engineering challenges has underpinned Gatik’s remarkable progress, and seen the company expand its commercial partnerships to more than 10 Fortune 500 customers including Walmart, Pitney Bowes, Georgia-Pacific, KBX, and Loblaw.

"I am deeply honored to receive the 2023 Rising Star award during such a pivotal time in the autonomous transportation industry," said Arjun Narang, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, Gatik. "This recognition from Automotive News is a testament to Gatik's segment-changing technology, made possible by our entire team's dedication to redefining the logistics landscape with our autonomous middle mile delivery solution. I look forward to continuing our mission to make B2B short-haul logistics safer, more reliable, and more efficient for our customers."

As CTO, Narang leads the integration of Gatik’s proprietary autonomous driving technology with the most experienced OEMs, technical and maintenance partners from across the globe to safely scale Gatik’s autonomous solution. Today, the company works with industry leaders such as Isuzu, Goodyear, Ryder, and Cummins. Earlier this year, Narang led Gatik’s partnership with Goodyear to integrate intelligent tires, powered by Goodyear SightLine technology, into Gatik’s fleet to enhance vehicle safety and performance, increasing efficiency and value for Gatik’s customers in the middle mile market.

Narang has spent over a decade working in the robotics and AV space with expertise in perception, sensor fusion-based SLAM, probabilistic modeling and multi-task learning. Prior to co-founding Gatik in 2017, he led research at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, building robots and intelligent systems that are able to operate autonomously in complex and open-ended environments. Narang has made critical research contributions in the field of autonomous systems at Waseda University (Japan), CUNY (USA), and Carnegie Robotics (USA). He earned his M.S. (with a focus on Robotics and AI) from Purdue University and B.E. from BITS Pilani, India.

Gatik’s approach to structured autonomy has enabled the company to achieve a 100% safety record during autonomous operations across each of its deployment sites in North America. The company focuses exclusively on facilitating frequent, point-to-point deliveries across the middle mile to maximize safety, using proprietary, commercial-grade autonomous technology that is purpose built for B2B short-haul logistics. Under Narang’s technical leadership, in 2021, Gatik became the first autonomous trucking company worldwide to remove the safety driver from a commercial delivery route on the middle mile with Walmart. In 2022, Gatik made history once again by successfully launching driverless commercial operations with Loblaw in Canada.

Arjun Narang joins his fellow Gatik co-founders as Automotive News award recipients. In 2022, Gatik’s Chief Engineer and co-founder, Apeksha Kumavat, was honored as a 2022 Rising Star by Automotive News. In 2021, Gatik’s CEO and co-founder, Gautam Narang, was named to Automotive News’ All Stars list.

The complete 2023 Automotive News Rising Star award list can be found here.

About Gatik

Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle mile logistics, delivers goods safely and efficiently using its fleet of light and medium duty trucks. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 customers including Kroger, Walmart, Tyson Foods, Loblaw, Pitney Bowes, Georgia-Pacific and KBX, and in 2021 became the first company worldwide to operate fully driverless commercial deliveries on the middle mile. Gatik’s Class 3 - 7 autonomous box trucks are commercially deployed in multiple markets including Texas, Arkansas and Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2017 by veterans of the autonomous vehicle industry, Gatik partners with industry leaders such as Isuzu, Ryder, Goodyear and Cummins. Gatik was recognized in 2022 as a TIME Best Invention, featured on Fast Company’s 2023 list of World’s Most Innovative Companies, and named as one of America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes in 2022 and 2023. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information, visit www.gatik.ai and follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Medium.

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