volvo trucks

The SPAC is back: Kodiak Robotics eyeing a merger

The SPAC is back: Kodiak Robotics eyeing a merger
(Photo: Kodiak Robotics)

The SPAC is back. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports that Ares Acquisition Corp. II is in advanced talks to merge with Kodiak Robotics. Ares is a blank-check firm, led by CEO David Kaplin, that raised $450 million in April 2023 and has said in the past it could pursue a combination in any sector.

The special purpose acquisition company is “a way for a small private company — often with no revenue —...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/the-spac-is-back-kodiak-robotics-eyeing-a-merger

Will Nikola’s best year ever be good enough?

Nikola broke a nine-day stock price losing streak a week ago when it posted record second-quarter revenue. CEO Steve Girsky still enthusiastically believes 2024 will be the best year in company history. Yet, the electric truck maker has only enough cash on hand to last through the end of the year without further diluting investors by converting more shares.

Sweeping away the underbrush

Nikola no longer talks about convicted founder Trevor Milton, who recently dropped his $1 billion suit against...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/will-nikolas-best-year-ever-be-good-enough

Outrider hiring globally for launch of autonomous distribution yards

Outrider Inc. founder and CEO Andrew Smith is the very definition of deliberate. Each robotic advance his company has made to a dangerous or dirty job in a distribution yard builds on another. Since raising $73 million in a Series C round in January, he’s been growing his team.

“While a lot of folks were pulling back on developing their teams, we’ve continued to build out Outrider’s leadership position in both safety technology and deep learning, or AI, for industrial systems,” Smith told me...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/outrider-hiring-globally-for-launch-of-autonomous-distribution-yards

Volvo’s fuel cell truck advances but battery-electric is biggest push

HALLERED, Sweden — The plume of white smoke from Volvo’s fuel cell truck matched the white clouds in the Scandinavian sky. Stand too close and you feel the descending mist of water vapor.

The hydrogen tanks sweat just droplets at first. Then comes the release of about a liter of water, approximately the amount the 100-kilowatt fuel cell produces per kilometer traveled.

On a spin around the track at Volvo’s high-security proving ground about an hour east of its Gothenburg headquarters in southern...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/volvos-fuel-cell-truck-advances-but-battery-electric-is-biggest-push

Truck Tech: Who’s on first edition

Autonomous trucking is a far weightier topic than baseball, the subject of the famous “Who’s on first?” Abbott and Costello comedy classic. Determining the positions of truck makers and autonomous software developers might be more watchable than even rule-shortened games in the new MLB season.

Abbott and Costello and their famous comedy bit “Who’s on First?” (Image: YouTube)

Who really drives autonomous truck development?

After three stories and more than 3,000 words on TuSimple this week here, he...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-tech-whos-on-first-edition

Aurora approaches autonomous truck finish line

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As Class 8 autonomous trucking draws nearer, terms like operational design domain, safety case and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/aurora-approaches-autonomous-truck-finish-line

Missteps and milestones mark 2022 in autonomous trucking

Docudrama script writers must be giddy at the “Succession”-esque tale unfolding at TuSimple Holdings. Just a year ago it leapfrogged the competition by demonstrating an 80-mile driverless truck pilot on a U.S. public highway. 

TuSimple repeated the technological feat, several times early in 2022. But then it gave way to repeated capriciousness that erased 95% of the company’s stock value. Could TuSimple be ripe for a takeover or sale to private equity? Consider:

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/missteps-and-milestones-mark-2022-in-autonomous-trucking

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