Autonomous trucks have come from humble beginnings, but one thing most of them retain is a cab made for humans. One San Francisco-based startup is looking to change that and has redesigned the cabless truck from the ground up. Humble Robotics emerged from stealth Tuesday and announced that it had raised $24 million in seed funding to create a new take on the tractor-trailer combo.
The round was led by Eclipse, with additional participation by Energy Impact Partners and others.
Humble’s universal platform is designed to adapt to the cargo type and the logistics environment. The first cabless vehicle, called the Humble Hauler, is designed for shipping containers and is much lighter than a traditional Class 8 tractor and trailer combo.
The design uses lidar, radar and cameras to provide 360-degree coverage of its surroundings. The vehicle is planned for dock-to-dock operations, a challenge for robots, namely the lack of hands to attach things like air lines.
Humble’s Humble Hauler is driven by what is called a vision-language-action, or VLA, model. It allows the truck to reason about the world, then act in scenarios it may not have experienced before. This dramatically improves safety and shortens the time to market.
These hockey-puck-on-wheels chassis are also battery-electric, with some advantages in maintenance costs compared to their internal-combustion competitors. Namely, they have fewer moving parts to break, and they provide a boon from a sustainability standpoint.
“I have dedicated my career to building electric and autonomous vehicle technology,” said Eyal Cohen, Humble’s founder and CEO. “For the first time, freight can be fully automated all the way to the loading dock. We are making freight sustainable, safe and efficient in a way no one thought was possible. And we’re doing it with an exceptional team of industry veterans and AV experts — our first vehicle was completed in just six months.”
Before founding Humble, Cohen worked in autonomy and electric vehicles at Apple, Uber and Waabi. Humble’s founding team brings talent from Tesla, Waymo, Cruise and others.
It took less than six months for Humble to complete its first prototype. The company notes it is partnering with logistics and supply chain market leaders to begin autonomous testing and commercialization pilots.
“Humble is operating at an unprecedented pace,” said Jiten Behl, partner at Eclipse and a Humble board member. “They understand that autonomous trucking isn’t just a software problem — it requires a full-stack rethink across hardware, AI and electrification. That integration is what unlocks speed to scale and a step-change reduction in the cost of moving freight.”
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