US autonomous truck startup Outrider raises $62 mln to scale up

Mcf Energy

24/10/2024 11:00

By Nick Carey
       Oct 24 (Reuters) - U.S. self-driving truck firm Outrider
said on Thursday it had raised $62 million from investors to
scale up autonomous truck services in distribution yards for
customers in e-commerce, manufacturing and other industries.
    The Series D funding round was led by Koch Disruptive
Technologies, the venture capital arm of industrial conglomerate
Koch Industries, and American venture capital fund New
Enterprise Associates (NEA). 
    It also included fresh investments from Nvidia's  NVDA.O 
venture capital arm NVentures, and Prologis'  PLD.N  venture
capital arm.
    With the latest funding, Brighton, Colorado-based Outrider
has raised more than $250 million. 
    Outrider's system uses self-driving electric yard trucks
that can couple or uncouple tractors and trailers using a
robotic arm and maneuver between dock doors and parking spots.
    Developing fully autonomous vehicles that can go everywhere
has proven harder and more expensive than expected. 
    Investments for robotaxi startups have largely dried up, 
but funding has continued for startups targeting simpler
self-driving vehicle solutions removed from pedestrians and with
few human-driven vehicles, such as truck yards or airports.

 (Reporting by Nick Carey
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((nick.carey@thomsonreuters.com; +44 7385 414 954;))