Autonomous Trucking Startup Plus Secures $200 Million for Global Expansion
Plus raises a $200 million Series B round to mass-produce and deploy its self-driving truck platform across the U.S., China, and Europe. The funding supports the company's goal of helping fleets integrate autonomous technology to meet surging freight demand.
Autonomous trucking startup Plus raises $200 million in a Series B funding round led by Guotai Junan, Hedosophia, and Wanxiang. The company plans to use this capital to accelerate the commercialization of its automated trucking system as it kicks off mass production in 2021. Plus will also build a dedicated sales, engineering, and support network to help commercial fleets seamlessly integrate its self-driving platform into their daily operations.
The pandemic drives increased interest in autonomous vehicles for freight and delivery, as self-driving trucks minimize human contact and reduce disease transmission risks. This trend coincides with a massive spike in short-haul freight volume, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting a 20.4% jump in the producer price index for local truckload carriage. Plus aims to address this growing demand by scaling its deployments in the U.S. and China while expanding into Europe and other parts of Asia.
Founded by Stanford Ph.D. students in 2016, Plus develops its semi-autonomous trucks in partnership with automakers, chipmakers, and shipping companies. The platform relies on a fusion of radars, lidar sensors, and cameras to provide a 360-degree view that tracks vehicles hundreds of meters away. Multiple AI models work together to detect objects, analyze road structures, and predict vehicle behavior, with training data gathered across diverse weather conditions in 14 U.S. states and seven Chinese provinces to ensure safe performance.