How soon will we see an autonomous trucking shakeout?

It is pretty much acknowledged across the trucking industry that a consolidation of players in autonomous trucking is coming. Money is tight. Borrowing is expensive. Share prices and corresponding book values are in the dumper. 

The coming shakeout

No single factor proves a shakeout among autonomous trucking players is coming. But an accumulation of evidence suggests that not all of today’s entrants will survive as independents.

PitchBook writes of mobility tech in its 2023 Industry and Technology...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-soon-will-we-see-an-autonomous-trucking-shakeout

Autonomous trucking developers slow their roll

googletag.cmd.push(function() { var gptSlot = googletag.defineSlot(‘/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1’, [[728, 90], [468, 60], [300, 100], [320, 50]], ‘div-gpt-ad-b1-i-fw-ad-1’).defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps.banner1).setCollapseEmptyDiv(true).addService(googletag.pubads());
gptAdSlots.push(gptSlot);
});

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-b1-i-fw-ad-1’); });

Uber Freight and Volvo Autonomous Solutions are working together to eventually digitally schedule...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/autonomous-trucking-developers-slow-their-roll

Volvo VNR Electric stakes early Class 8 leadership claim

Green Volvo VNR Electric

DUBLIN, Va. — The interior of the Class 8 Volvo VNR Electric truck won’t wow you with sleekness. It is utilitarian, practically unchanged from its 2016 introduction. But substituting batteries for an internal combustion engine provides a ride as quiet as any competitor and a single-charge driving range exceeding most.

My strongest takeaway from driving two laps around the private track at Volvo’s manufacturing complex was how energy from slowing down on curves returns to the battery. It is a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/volvo-vnr-electric-takes-the-pole-among-zero-emission-class-8-trucks

Want a Volvo electric truck? Go for Gold or go away

Volvo VNR Electric truck at sunset

DUBLIN, Va. — Like a parent walking a young child across the street, Volvo Trucks North America is holding its customers’ hands when it comes to Class 8 electric trucks — whether they like it or not.

VTNA is the early leader among OEMs selling electric trucks in the U.S. It holds more than 60% of the nascent market compared to about an 11% total American market share. 

Over time, Volvo’s dominance likely will shrink. Especially when U.S. market leader Daimler Truck North America begins regular...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/want-a-volvo-electric-truck-go-for-gold-or-go-away

Nikola whistleblower enriched by short seller may get more $$$

Paul Lackey worked as a contractor for Nikola in the early days of the electric truck company. On the witness stand in Trevor Milton’s fraud trial this week, he spoke of a founder more interested in making money than cleaning up the environment. 

But Lackey wasn’t exactly a dream witness for the prosecution. He collected about $600,000 in stock sale proceeds after aligning himself with short sellers that nearly crushed the startup.

As the prosecution’s first witness on Tuesday in a trial expected...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nikola-whistleblower-enriched-by-short-seller-may-get-more

Truck Tech: Rush hour edition

Truck Tech logo on blue background

Rusty Rush not only operates more truck dealerships than anyone on the planet, he also knows technology. And he has opinions on just about everything. So, buckle up. It’s Rush hour. 

Also this week, TuSimple and Plus have rumored suitors, and Nikola is going to the ATM but not the one at the bank on the corner.

The world according to Rusty Rush

Rusty Rush, president, chairman and CEO of Rush Enterprises, is one of those people you could listen to all day. His down-home Texas twang and affable...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-tech-rush-hour-edition

Truck Tech: Electric incentives edition

Truck Tech logo on blue background

The supply is running low. But getting in on California’s free money for electric truck purchases is still doable. Also, Walmart lays out its plan for sustainable over-the-road trucking. And Kodiak Robotics shows the ease of maintaining autonomous tech on its fourth-generation truck.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Click here to get Truck Tech in your email on Fridays.

There’s a voucher for that

It’s no secret that a Class 8 electric truck can cost three times as much up front as a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-tech-electric-incentives-edition

Embark autonomous and BYD electric trucks demo the future

Light blue BYD cabover in foreground. Blue Embark autonous truck in background preparing for a drop and hook of a trailer of HP Inc. computer printers.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Inside a gated parking lot adjacent to a metal scrap business and surrounded by fully grown palm trees, a demonstration of the future of drayage for autonomous trucks played out on a partly cloudy spring morning.

Autonomous software developer Embark Trucks brought one of its Peterbilt 579 sleeper cabs equipped for a supervised run to the Phoenix suburb of Tolleson, Arizona. A 53-foot trailer with a half-load of HP Inc. printers arrived in near silence except a toot of...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/embark-autonomous-and-byd-electric-trucks-demo-the-future

Truck Tech: Desert bloom edition

Nikola is far from the only zero-emissions transportation startup to call Arizona home. It is helping lure neighbors to the desert. Meanwhile, in the Midwest, trailer maker Wabash sees potential in making its thermally efficient bodies for electric work trucks.

An electric desert storm

Nikola invited about 200 people to a launch event this week at its new but still under construction electric truck assembly plant in the Arizona desert. Besides showing the first of its regular production...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-tech-desert-bloom-edition

Join Our Newsletter
Enter your email to receive a weekly round-up of shipping news.
icon