Autonomous trucking 2023: Leaders emerge amid exits and entries

The shakeout in autonomous trucking struck in full force in 2023, leaving three leaders targeting commercial routes without humans in the cab and a couple of late entries on the periphery.

Embark Trucks became the first to fall in March, laying off 70% of its San Francisco-based employees and prompting an emotional goodbye from co-founder Alex Rodrigues.

Rodrigues and mid-20s co-founder and college buddy Brandon Moak stood to garner hundreds of millions when Embark went public via special purpose acquisition merger with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. in November 2021.

“I’m sorry that myself and Brandon weren’t able to find a way,” Rodrigues wrote in an email to employees. “You are an amazing team and it has been the highlight of my life to get to work with all of you.”

Embark spent most of the $314 million received in its SPAC. Investors redeemed $300 million in shares at the last minute, depriving Embark of additional working capital. Embark had no manufacturing partner, marketing its robotic driver system as an OEM-agnostic add-on.

Venture capitalists and investors who loved the promise of autonomous technology when borrowing was cheap refocused on profits when the cost of money rapidly rose. Embark’s financial prospects dimmed after a 1-for-20 reverse stock split in August 2022. The company’s share price had drifted below $1, exposing it to delisting from the Nasdaq.

With no one coming forward to lend Embark money, the company considered liquidation before selling itself in May to Applied Intuition, an autonomous simulation business, for $71 million in cash.

Source: freightwaves.com