Less than a year after its founding, truckless truck brand Humble Robotics has raised more than $75 million following a $51 million Series A funding round that will fuel the company’s transition from prototype to pre-production.
The latest funding round for the developer of driverless, cabless and truckless electric charging platforms was led by Obvious Ventures with participation from other existing investors, Eclipse and Energy Impact Partners. Humble said it will use the funds for customer pilots, testing and validation, and early manufacturing.
“We’ve spent years proving that a truck can drive itself,” explains Humble Robotics founder and CEO Eyal Cohen. “The harder question is how to make autonomy something a freight operator can depend on every day.”
We originally covered the Humble Hauler back in May. You can check out the original article below and then let us know what you think about the company’s prospects in the comments.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 6, 26
The startup that dares to ask: “Why does the Macbook that carries my cargo need a full cabin?” just showed off a fully driverless, cabless, and truckless battery-electric charging platform designed to handle containerized cargo more efficiently than ever.
Instead of looking at the tractor and asking how to make it work without a driver, Humble looked at the trailer itself, redesigning the container chassis as a vehicle from the ground up. The end result is not just a self-driving solution, it is a lighter overall cabless platform that saves shippers the weight of a sleeper cab, day cab, or the weight of the truck.
The Humble approach is said to improve the payload efficiency of shipping containers and is designed for dock-to-dock operations.
“I have dedicated my career to developing electric and autonomous vehicle technology,” explains Eyal Cohen, founder and CEO of Humble Robotics. “For the first time, loading can be fully automated all the way to the loading dock. We’re making loading sustainable, safe and efficient in a way no one thought possible. And we’re doing it with an exceptional team of industry veterans and AV experts.”
Humble, which emerged from stealth after a $24 million funding round, claims to have completed its first Humble Hauler prototype in less than six months, and will soon be ready to begin autonomous testing in pilot programs with several logistics partners.
The vehicle uses a combination of cameras, lidar and radar for 360-degree awareness (unobstructed when seeing around a taxi) and uses vision, language and action models to help the system respond to new scenarios.
Electrek’s opinion
Thanks to superior battery technology, a mature global charging infrastructure, and a permanently damaged Middle East oil supply, there has never been a better time to start an electric vehicle company. Humble is also mentioning all the buzzwords about electric trailers, while touting the fact that the electric powertrain can reduce a company’s volatile fuel prices, even as it helps produce other cost benefits, such as lower maintenance costs.
And if a robot like this can deliver on its promises without the inherent inefficiencies of humanoids, it could be one step closer to proving that the most efficient solution to a problem is rarely general, and even rarer is a solution that looks like a human.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Humble, via ACT News.
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