Tyson Foods last week started using a truck outfitted with tech and equipment from Gatik that eventually will operate without a driver.

What's happening: Up to four trucks will shuttle products from one Northwest Arkansas facility to another using U.S. 71 Business for much of the 12-mile route.

Why it matters: The move frees up drivers, who are in high demand, so they can make desirable long hauls, reducing the company's dependence on third-party truckers. Smaller units mean quicker turnarounds, keeping freight moving in more manageable groups.

• Still in pilot phase, it could save the company up to $900,000 a year, Patrick Simmons, Tyson's vice president of transportation, told Axios.

Flashback: Gatik was the first autonomous-vehicle company in the U.S. to have driverless trucks, which operate in Bentonville for Walmart.

Details: Tyson's trucks are customized, 26-foot, refrigerated box trucks that can carry about 15,000 pounds.

• By comparison, a typical 53-foot Tyson trailer seen on the interstate hauls about 32,000 pounds.
• Once all trucks are in place, Tyson plans to operate shuttles 18 hours a day, seven days a week, Simmons said.
• A safety driver will be in the truck cab on all trips at the beginning of the project. They won't be removed until the established routes have been proven safe.

The big picture: The U.S. faced a shortage of 78,000 drivers in 2022 — a shortfall that is expected to double by 2031, American Trucking Associations CEO Chris Spear told U.S. lawmakers in March.

• Simmons said the company has enough drivers at the moment, but planned expansion and the expected decline in interest make looking into driverless technology attractive now.

The bottom line: Gatik's track record is golden.

• "We have never been in an incident or an accident while … the system was in autonomous mode across any of our sites — Arkansas, Texas or Ontario," Gatik CEO Gautam Narang told Axios.

Disclosure: Reporter Worth Sparkman formerly worked at Tyson Foods.

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Entrepreneur Chris Thompson found his darkest personal moment can be a bright spot for others.

• "I'm lucky to be alive after my own battle with substance abuse," he told Worth.

The app he created, Sober Sidekick, connects people looking to stay clean and sober to build an ever-growing support network and reduce incidents of relapse.

🖼️ The big picture: Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. more than doubled from 2015 to 2021 to an estimated 106,699, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

• Another 140,000 people die each year from alcohol-related causes.

State of play: In 2019, just 60 days after sobering up the last time and still living in a halfway house in Los Angeles, Thompson had retooled an idea from a previous startup and Sober Sidekick was available on the Apple App Store.

How it works: About 250,000 global members are connected.

• They post triumphs and trials of daily life, message one another, track progress and can tune into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting via Zoom 24 hours a day.

🧮 By the numbers: A third-party data validation group for the health care industry found the relapse rate dropped by 68% after community members engaged five times with their peers on the app.

What's next: An announcement about a contract with a new health care customer using Sober Sidekick should be made by the end of the year, he told Worth.

Of note: Substance-abuse help is available at Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.

🎉 The Shift is a regular feature to catch up quick on what's happening in Arkansas' economy and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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🏃‍♀️ The National Institutes of Health awarded the University of Arkansas $2.5 million to study the impact of exercise on the effects of aging. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

⚖️ Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has given an initial go-ahead for the Bentonville School District to consider donating land to build affordable housing for teachers. (Arkansas Advocate)

🐓 Tyson Foods told about 60 chicken farmers in Carroll County and southern Missouri the company would no longer contract with them to raise birds after announcing it would close four of its plants. The farmers will be paid through the end of their contracts. (Arkansas Business)

Business openings in the U.S. have exceeded 2019 levels every month this year, thanks to a surge in travel, events and get-togethers, Axios' Hope King writes.

Driving the news: Nationally, new listings of shops and services on Yelp are on track to beat 2022's all-time high, according to a recently published report from the company.

By the numbers: In Arkansas, 3,576 new businesses registered with Yelp between Jan. 1 and July, a 26% jump over the same period in 2022 and up 56% from 2019.

• Categories with the most growth for those seven months this year were: nightlife (up 108%), active life (up 54%), beauty services (up 53%), food businesses (up 51%), and home services (up 30%).
• The total number of businesses in 2020 was 3,467 and, in 2021, was 4,061.

Zoom out: Nationwide, nearly 484,000 new businesses popped up on the platform from January through the end of July this year — compared to about 389,000 over the same time period last year. That's roughly a 25% increase year-over-year.

Of note: Yelp business openings refer to new-business listings on the platform in a given timeframe.