Startup raises $51M for driverless electric trucks with no cab

A San Francisco startup called Humble Robotics has raised $51 million to build electric trucks that drive themselves and have no cab at all, meaning no seat or space for a human driver. The round was led by Obvious Ventures. Existing investors Eclipse and Energy Impact Partners also took part. Humble's total funding is now $75 million. The company would not say what it is worth.

Why build a truck with no cab

Many self-driving truck companies take an existing truck and teach it to drive itself. Humble is doing the opposite. It designs the truck and its driving software together. CEO Eyal Cohen says that gives it an edge over rivals who retrofit vehicles made for people. The finished truck is meant to look like a giant skateboard that carries 40-foot shipping containers.

Cohen has worked on Apple's now-defunct self-driving car project, at Uber's autonomous driving effort, and at the self-driving trucking startup Waabi.

Where it plans to run

Humble is targeting regional routes, generally under 250 miles, that connect ports, warehouses and distribution centers. Federal data show 87% of goods shipped by truck in the US, by weight, traveled less than 250 miles in 2021. Cohen also points to a hard-to-staff industry. In his words, the trucks can take a 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. shift that nobody wants, plus short repetitive routes.

What is not known yet

Humble has not moved any freight commercially. Its testing so far has been at a former dynamite factory run by UC Berkeley, where the truck handled stop signs, wild turkeys and students. That prototype still had a temporary cab for supervised testing. The company holds a California permit to test with a safety driver. It would need more regulatory steps before testing without one or selling service in the state.

What happens next

The plan runs in stages, according to Cohen:

• Early 2027: customer pilots begin, using conventional trucks to collect data.
• Next: the company simulates those routes and tests them in a virtual environment.
• Then: it deploys its own vehicle, called the Humble Hauler.
• Third quarter of 2027: Cohen expects commercial operations to start.

Rivals are further along. Aurora has launched commercial driverless freight service in Texas and works with truckmakers PACCAR and Volvo. Kodiak AI plans to haul Ikea freight without a driver in the cab by the end of the year, with human drivers handling the first and last miles.

Self-driving trucks were once expected to arrive before robotaxis, since highways seem simpler than city streets. But a loaded truck takes longer to stop than a car, and one stranded on a highway can become a serious hazard. Humble says it has hired people from Tesla, Waymo and Cruise to turn its prototype into a business.