Self-driving trucking business Kodiak Robotics has appointed Steve Kenner as its vice president of safety. In his new role, Kenner will be responsible for overseeing safety across the company’s operations, including fleet and driver operations, safety management systems and safety policy.
Earlier on in his career, Kenner – a respected automotive safety executive – worked as global director of automotive safety at Ford and in engineering roles at Chrysler and General Motors. He then led safety and regulatory activities for the Special Projects Group at Apple. Following his tenure with the technology giant, he headed up Uber Advanced Technology Group’s product safety efforts. Most recently, he was the chief product and safety officer at Locomation and director of safety standards at Aurora.
At Kodiak Robotics, Kenner will report directly to the company’s CEO and will support the business as it continues to make technical and commercial developments in the area of autonomous trucking.
“Steve has long been a leader in vehicle safety and has the perfect background to lead Kodiak’s safety program as we finish the work to commercially launch self-driving trucks,” said the company’s co-founder and CEO, Don Burnette. “Safety is at the forefront of everything we do at Kodiak and is central to everyone on our team. Steve will leverage his extensive knowledge to ensure that safety continues to be the throughline across Kodiak.”
“Kodiak’s dedication to safety aligns with my mission to help on-road vehicles achieve the highest safety standards,” commented Kenner. “Autonomous trucking technology has the potential to save lives while solving our nation’s existential supply chain issues. Kodiak is an established leader in the safe testing and deployment of AV technologies and I look forward to further strengthening its safety programs as the company works to deploy autonomous trucks commercially.”
For more on Kodiak Robotics, click here.
