Third Wave Automation has secured $27 million in Series C funding to expand its autonomous forklift operations. Their Shared Autonomy Platform allows forklifts to function in four modes: fully autonomous, remote assist, remote operation, and manual. This flexibility enables the machines to adapt to various warehouse layouts and tasks, while still allowing human intervention when necessary.

In October 2024, robotics investments reached $7.4 billion across 77 funding rounds, led by Waymo's $5.6 billion raise, marking the largest single round of the year. The total investment from January to October 2024 exceeded $20 billion. Autonomous driving tech companies dominated, with significant investments in Waymo, WeRide ($320 million), and Didi Woya ($298 million). The U.S. and China led in investment rounds, with the U.S. securing $6.4 billion and China $873 million.