This startup wants to bring driverless freight trucks to California's roads, but drivers are pushing back. By Caroline Petrow-Cohen, Los Angeles Times The Tribune Content Agency Updated June 21, 2026 6:55 PM Gift Article A Bay Area startup is trying to reinvent the semitruck by making the gas-guzzling giants electric, autonomous and designed for efficiency. Humble Robotics, founded last year in San Francisco, has raised $24 million to develop a cabless freight truck that lacks a steering wheel, gas pedal and driver's seat. The company says its reimagined truck could move freight across California and other states while saving money and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Humble Robotics emerged from stealth in April with seed funding led by Eclipse Capital, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, and Energy Impact Partners. The company is looking to capitalize on new regulations in California that could pave the way for autonomous trucks to hit public roads in the near future. But the technology still faces hurdles, experts said, and labor groups including the Teamsters are raising alarms over safety and availability of jobs. "We're building an electric autonomous platform for moving freight, and when we were conceiving the company, the goal was to move freight at the lowest possible cost," said Eyal Cohen, founder and chief executive of Humble Robotics. "We just want to bring everybody along into modernizing this technology." Cohen, who has spent nearly two decades working on electric and autonomous vehicles at companies including Uber, Apple and Waabi, said Humble's driverless truck, dubbed the Humble Hauler, could begin customer pilots within the year. In April, the California Department of Motor Vehicles revised its regulations for autonomous vehicles and lifted a ban on autonomous trucks weighing 10,001 pounds or more. Heavy-duty autonomous vehicles, however, are required to begin testing with a human safety driver and must complete 500,000 miles of testing at each stage of certification. Humble Robotics has not yet applied for a California DMV autonomous vehicle permit and was originally planning testing operations in Texas. Cohen said the company will adapt to the new regulations in California. "Our focus is now shifting back to our home state of California given these recent changes," Cohen said. "We look forward to working with the DMV to understand the requirements of these changes and plan our operations in this state." Humble Robotics faces competition from other autonomous trucking companies including Pittsburgh-based Aurora and Bay Area-based Kodiak. Both Kodiak and Aurora are developing self-driving trucks with traditional driver's components like a steering wheel. By forgoing the front cab, Humble Robotics could face additional regulatory hurdles, said Dan Sperling, founding director emeritus of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis. "At what point they would approve a truck without a steering wheel or pedals and without a cab in the vehicle, that's probably going to be a little longer," Sperling said. "Without a cab, that means what happens when something goes wrong, you can't get someone in there to drive it." Heavy-duty vehicles without a cab known as automated guided vehicles already exist in controlled environments like marine ports. These vehicles are not fully autonomous, but independently follow a predetermined route. Cohen said Humble Robotics is working to make cabless vehicles applicable to public roads, particularly those surrounding the busy ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. "Humble aims to partner with ports, terminal operators, and intermodal shipping companies for initial deployments," Cohen said. "We've been impressed by the Long Beach Container Terminal's embrace of state-of-the-art technology." The company employs fewer than 50 people and relies on technology similar to what's used in self-driving cars, including radar, lidar and cameras that provide a 360-degree view around the vehicle. The truck will also use AI to make driving decisions with "intelligent reasoning that adapts to any scenario," the company's website says. "What's unique at Humble compared to past endeavors is that cameras are the primary mechanism that we use for doing the work, where lidar and radar are more of a backup," Cohen said. The company declined to share the production or sale price of the vehicle, and would not disclose its finances. The Humble Hauler is a Class 8 vehicle, the same group as semitrucks, and has a universal carrying platform that can accommodate typical cargo containers or other loads like a concrete mixer. The truck will have an electric range of 200 miles and a max speed of 55 miles per hour. Though the Hauler is in the same class as long-haul trucks, Cohen said its primary use case will be for shorter, back-and-forth journeys. Long-haul electric trucks are harder to scale because they require a large, expensive battery. As of last year in California, nearly one in four new trucks, buses and vans were zero-emission. Zero-emission vehicles made up around 23% of new medium- and heavy-duty truck sales in the state in 2024, according to a release from Gov. Gavin Newsom's office. Earlier this year, California's clean-truck voucher program reserved $165 million to subsidize Tesla's planned electric semitruck. "For a lot of moves that we do in freight, like moving back and forth from two points that are only a few miles apart, electric is a really great technology," Cohen said. California is among the largest markets for freight trucking, employing more than 130,000 drivers. Eight out of every 1,000 jobs in California belong to a truck driver, according to Fremont Contract Carriers. That means taking away human driver jobs could be particularly detrimental in the state. Teamsters California, which represents 250,000 workers across dozens of industries, strongly opposed the DMV's move to lift the ban on autonomous trucks. "The DMV's decision to rush forward with driverless heavy-duty trucks is reckless, and we will use every tool necessary to stop it," Teamsters California said in a statement. "These rules put our streets, our highways, and our jobs in jeopardy." Cohen said he does not believe automated trucking will fully replace human jobs any time soon. "Obviously people are concerned about autonomous freight and what it means," he said. "There are millions of Class 8 trucks out there and it'll take a very long time for all those to become automated. A truck driver today will have a job for the rest of their career." Communities in California and beyond are gradually warming up to self-driving cars with the arrival of Waymo and Zoox robotaxis. But autonomous trucks are likely to face more scrutiny, Sperling of UC Davis said. "There's an optics issue, and that is if you are driving down the road and see this massive truck next to you with no driver, you're going to freak out," Sperling said. "If something goes wrong, the repercussions are massive." This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 6:44 PM.

Techmeme: SF-based Humble Robotics, which is developing an electric, self-driving cabless freight truck with 200 miles range and 55 mph max speed, raised $24M (Caroline Petrow-Cohen/Los Angeles Times). Featured podcasts. Lenny's Podcast: Building the most AI-pilled engineering team in the world | Fiona Fung (Manager of the Claude Code and Cowork Teams) Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product. Big Technology Podcast: Are AI Glasses Over?, Big Technology Audience Questions, Alex Stamos on AI Cybersecurity The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators. The Upstarts Podcast: Mutiny's Jaleh Rezaei: Walking Away From Millions In Software To Grow Even Faster With Sales AI Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more. Hard Fork: 'Hard Fork' Live, Part 3: Differing Visions of an A.I. Future The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech. The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger. Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith: AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society. Add your podcast here

/PRNewswire/ -- Humble today announced its emergence from stealth with a revolutionary new vehicle: a fully autonomous, cabless, electric hauler designed for...