The question of roadside warning devices adds a triangle-shaped wrinkle to autonomous truck makers’ plans after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently ruled that Aurora and Waymo did not provide enough data backing their request to ditch the traditional triangular road devices for cab-mounted warning beacons. Aurora and Waymo filed the petition in 2023 seeking a five-year...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/autonomous-trucks-have-a-triangle-shaped-problem
Even with a stream of positive news releases, the signs and warnings for Hyzon were there. Now reality has arrived: Fuel cell developer Hyzon Motors is the latest startup to give up after going public during the SPAC craze of 2020-2021.
Hyzon fought through numerous obstacles, including a $25 million fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission related to fabricating orders for hydrogen-powered commercial trucks in China.
The spinoff of Singapore’s Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies chased the...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/hyzon-becomes-latest-spac-backed-startup-to-crash
The reverse stock split, a form of financial engineering that artificially boosts a company’s stock price, often sounds a death knell, especially for startups that exhausted funds in mergers with special purpose acquisition companies.
The widespread carnage of failed advanced technology startups, especially in electrification and autonomy, is remarkable. With a few exceptions, companies opting for a reverse split end up on a path to oblivion.
All hat, no cattleAccording to the independent Financia...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/reverse-stock-splits-often-a-path-to-oblivion
In Truck Tech’s sixth and final special episode highlighting fleets making the switch to natural gas, host Alan Adler spoke with Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Paper Transport Inc. (PTI) about its journey.
PTI was an early adopter of natural gas-powered trucks, with approximately 10% of its total fleet made up of compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks. The company sees a step change in natural gas adoption rates due to an increase in net-zero-carbon renewable natural gas (RNG) sources and the release...
The stigma of going through bankruptcy is real, whether personal or corporate. But sometimes, it turns out OK. Consider Proterra Inc., a maker of electric transit buses, battery packs and a developer of charging infrastructure.
Several startups in the electrification space ran out of financial runway. They either disappeared or were absorbed by other companies. Proterra’s electric transit bus business tasted early success after launching in 2004. Investors like automaker General Motors’ venture...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/proterras-surviving-businesses-may-shed-bankruptcy-stigma
What do coatings for M&M chocolate candies, O-Cedar floor mops and battery packs for electric trucks have in common?
All three come from German industrial conglomerate Freudenberg Group. The company operates many other seemingly incongruous businesses from filtration to home cleaning products.
A history of handoffsFreudenberg’s battery business is an appropriate Truck Tech topic. But not as tasty than M&Ms, for which it makes the hard shell coatings through its Capol business unit.
The...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/of-floor-mops-mm-coatings-and-battery-packs
TuSimple co-founder Xiaodi Hou has started a second autonomous trucking startup. But he is suing his former company, urging that TuSimple be liquidated and $450 million returned to shareholders, of whom he is the largest.
Suits on 3 coastsIn separate filings in courts in San Diego and Delaware, Hou claims his co-founder, Mo Chen, and CEO Cheng Lu are trying to move TuSimple’s $450 million to China. TuSimple moved its business there and has shifted its business from autonomous trucking to...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/co-founder-wants-tusimple-liquidated
Smart labels are one of those buzzy technology terms that have a lot of meanings. The ones logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel are rolling out with Chorus — one of Alphabet’s X moonshot factory entities — address questions some might not even think to ask.
More than RFIDIt’s one thing to know through a radio frequency ID tag – wireless communication incorporating electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling – where a particular parcel is located and maybe even some details about its condition. But Swiss...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-a-moonshot-is-giving-voice-to-truck-parcels
The garbage-gulping Mr. Fusion from “Back to the Future” was pure fiction, but the flux capacitor that powered Doc Brown’s flying DeLorean is real. NASA made it. The space agency licenses it. And hydrogen-powered trucks might benefit from it.
A license like no other“I actually have a license for the flux capacitor. How many people can say that?” Michael Kramer, founder of startup Novadev, told me. “The only one who’s made a lot of money on this program so far is my patent attorney. He got paid a...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/could-the-flux-capacitor-solve-hydrogen-storage-on-class-8-trucks
In light of Aurora Innovation’s decision to push out commercial driverless trucking until next spring, it’s worth revisiting how third-party validation is becoming a price of entry for autonomous technology. Much of the public still fears it and would-be users know little about it.
Gatik and Outrider look outside for building confidenceMiddle-mile autonomous business-to-business logistics leader Gatik and distribution yard autonomy startup Outrider understand their word about safety may not be...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/third-party-validation-table-stakes-for-driverless-trucking