Stack AV will be competing against other autonomous vehicle companies such as Alphabet's Waymo, Aurora Innovation, and TuSimple Holdings. Despite the competition and previous setbacks in the self-driving industry, Salesky is confident about the potential of their technology, which he says has received positive feedback from potential customers. The technology is also capable of being used on electric vehicles. However, no timeline has been provided for when Stack AV plans to commercialize its technology.
Key takeaways:
- The founders of the former self-driving unit of Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG are launching a new autonomous trucking startup, Stack AV, with backing said to be more than $1 billion from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.
- Stack AV, based in Pittsburgh, has already hired 150 people and has a test fleet of trucks on the road.
- SoftBank sees new opportunity in backing Stack AV to help solve the logistics and supply chain issues that emerged during the pandemic as more consumers turned to online commerce.
- Stack AV will be competing against Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, Aurora Innovation, and TuSimple Holdings Inc. in the autonomous trucking industry.