The founders of shuttered self-driving car startup Argo AI have rebounded by launching an autonomous trucking firm, just 11 months after investors Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG pulled their support and shut down the earlier effort.
The comeback is funded by a new investor, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., but features familiar faces. Likewise based in Pittsburgh, the new Stack AV is led by the former Argo leadership team; Chief Executive Officer Bryan Salesky, President Peter Rander, and Chief Technology Officer Brett Browning.
In a statement, Stack said it is focused on revolutionizing the way businesses transport goods, designing solutions to alleviate long-standing issues that have plagued the trucking industry including driver shortages, lagging efficiency in uptime per vehicle, overarching safety concerns, high operating costs, and elevated emission levels.
“As consumer consumption patterns evolve, businesses increasingly need AI-driven, intelligent, and reliable supply chains,” Salesky said in a release. “With our proprietary technology and expertise as well as the commitment from our long-term partner in SoftBank, we are confident we will revolutionize the trucking and freight industries by driving improvements in efficiency and safety and alleviating supply chain constraints for our customers, helping them reach their goals and advance their missions.”
Stack will also feature a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) as a core technology, according to Kentaro Matsui, Head of the New Business Office at SoftBank Group and Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.
“The transformative power of AI is undeniable and will have a significant impact on our society,” Matsui said in a release. “The next decade will be defined by AI, where all social systems will be linked by this technology to solve the most complex societal issues. By applying the strengths of AI-powered technology to the trucking industry, Stack AV will fundamentally change the transportation of goods and supply chains across the globe.”
Despite its experienced leadership and deep-pocketed investor, Stack is entering a field where several competing tech firms are already running pilot tests and initial rollouts of autonomous trucks on public roads. In recent examples, Tyson Foods has deployed autonomous box trucks from Gatik AI, Loadsmith has ordered hundreds of autonomous vehicle systems from Kodiak Robotics, automotive technology vendor Bosch recently teamed up with Plus, Uber Freight expanded its pilot with Aurora Innovation, and J.B. Hunt is running a trial with Waymo. And the sector has already shed several other contenders, such as the autonomous driving technology vendor TuSimple, which is looking into ways to sell off its U.S. operations.
