Humble Robotics raises $51M for cabless hauler pilots

Humble Robotics raised a $51 million Series A on Thursday to move its cabless, electric Humble Hauler into customer pilots on port drayage and warehouse runs. Obvious Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Eclipse and Energy Impact Partners.

The raise brings the San Francisco startup’s total funding to $75 million, about six months after it emerged from stealth with a $24 million seed round and a driverless truck built with no cab. It also funds a bet founder and CEO Eyal Cohen made after a decade on long-haul autonomy: that short, repeatable freight moves, such as port drayage and plant-to-warehouse shuttles, are a more controlled place to put driverless, electric trucks to work than the open highway.

The new money will pay for customer pilots, testing and validation, early manufacturing, and a broader family of vehicles built on Humble’s modular platform, the company said in its release. Humble told FreightWaves Today in September it plans to sell the haulers to third-party operators.

Humble is targeting regional routes under 250 miles, which it says make up 87% of U.S. truck tonnage. That figure comes from 2021 federal data: trucks moved nearly 12 billion tons of domestic freight that year, and 87% of it traveled less than 250 miles, according to a Department of Energy analysis. Shipments under 100 miles accounted for 44% on their own.

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