Humble Robotics raises $51M to build cabless self-driving trucks

Humble Robotics raised $51 million to build electric self-driving trucks without drivers’ cabs, the company told Business Insider. The round was led by Obvious Ventures, with existing investors Eclipse and Energy Impact Partners participating, bringing Humble’s total funding to $75 million.

The San Francisco startup is taking a different route from companies that retrofit conventional trucks for autonomy. Its core bet is that the truck and self-driving system should be designed together from the start.

Humble founder and CEO Eyal Cohen previously worked on Apple’s now-defunct self-driving car project, Uber’s autonomous driving effort, and at self-driving trucking startup Waabi. He founded Humble last year with the view that purpose-built autonomous trucks could offer an edge over vehicles originally designed around human drivers.

The company has also recruited employees from Tesla, Waymo, and Cruise as it works to turn its prototype into a commercial business.

Humble has not yet begun moving freight commercially. Cohen said customer pilots are expected to start in the first quarter of 2027 using conventional trucks to move freight and collect data.

The company plans to simulate routes and test them in a virtual environment before deploying its own vehicle, the Humble Hauler. Cohen expects commercial operations to begin in the third quarter of 2027, while additional regulatory steps would be needed before driverless testing or commercial service in California.

Humble is targeting regional routes, generally under 250 miles, connecting ports, warehouses, and distribution centers. Business Insider cited federal data showing that 87% of goods shipped by truck in the US by weight traveled less than 250 miles in 2021.

Cohen argues autonomous trucks could take on undesirable shifts and repetitive routes, potentially freeing human drivers for other work. He said Humble’s trucks could handle a “2 a.m. to 6 a.m. shift that nobody wants to do.”

Self-driving trucks face high stakes: fully loaded trucks take longer to stop than passenger cars, and a stranded truck can create a serious highway hazard. Humble is designing its trucks to handle messier parts of freight trips, including crowded industrial sites and loading docks.

The company has tested its truck at a former dynamite factory across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, a UC Berkeley-run research and development space. In supervised testing, the vehicle still had a temporary cab, but Humble says the finished truck will resemble a giant skateboard capable of carrying 40-foot shipping containers with no space for a human driver.