As Uber winds down autonomous truck enterprise, Otto founders aren't giving up

Uber doled out greater than $600 million to amass self-driving truck startup Otto two years in the past. Final week, Uber introduced it was ceasing work on its autonomous trucking enterprise to give attention to automobiles.

Earlier this yr, Uber settled a authorized spat with Alphabet’s self-driving automobile arm, Waymo, which had accused Uber and Otto of colluding to steal confidential info through former worker Anthony Levandowski, who left to discovered Otto. What impression this debacle had on Uber’s determination to halt its self-driving program isn’t clear, however what is obvious is that these accountable for getting Otto off the bottom are hell-bent on staying within the autonomous trucking realm.

Otto-matic

Levandowski was ousted from Uber in Might of final yr, however just a few months in the past particulars emerged to counsel that he was again with a brand new stealth startup referred to as Kache.ai, which is outwardly engaged on “clever transportation” involving vehicles. Now Don Burnette, certainly one of Otto’s different cofounders, is again on the helm of an autonomous long-haul trucking firm referred to as Kodiak Robotics.

Burnette left Uber in March of this yr and nearly instantly shaped Kodiak along side Paz Eshel, a former investor at Battery Ventures. In the present day the startup made its first huge announcement — it has raised $40 million in a collection A spherical of funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from CRV, Lightspeed Ventures, and Tusk Ventures.

This represents a considerable collection A funding spherical for a three-month previous startup that hasn’t executed something but. However the funding is indicative not solely of the worth at present bestowed upon autonomous automobile startups, however of the trucking trade specifically.

“This financing, coming simply three months after founding Kodiak Robotics, is a big validation for our imaginative and prescient,” Burnette famous. “We consider self-driving vehicles will seemingly be the primary autonomous automobiles to assist a viable enterprise mannequin, and we're proud to have the assist of such high-profile buyers to assist us execute on our plan.”

The U.S. freight market is price greater than $700 billion — a determine that stretches effectively into the trillions globally. That's the reason we’ve seen a slew of trucking startups nab huge VC bucks in latest occasions, whereas Uber launched its Uber Freight enterprise final yr to match provide with demand within the trucking and logistics sphere.

“Autonomous driving is probably going one of the crucial main expertise shifts of the final 100 years,” added Battery Ventures’ Itzik Parnafes. “Now we have been researching this pattern for a number of years and really feel assured we're backing an skilled, savvy staff that may capitalize on the chance in a singular approach.”

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