Humble Raises $24M for Driverless Electric Truck

A new contender has entered the autonomous trucking arena with a distinct vision for the future of freight. Humble, a San Francisco startup, has secured a $24 million seed round to develop its cabless, electric freight vehicle, the Humble Hauler. The company’s approach fundamentally reimagines truck design and logistics, positioning itself as a disruptive force in a market dominated by players using modified conventional trucks.

Founded by Eyal Cohen, a veteran of Apple, Uber ATG, and Waabi, Humble is built on the premise that existing trucks are flawed for autonomy because their architecture centers on a human driver. By eliminating the cab entirely, the Hauler achieves 360-degree sensor coverage with cameras, LiDAR, and radar. This design not only improves perception but also increases payload capacity and enables a more efficient vehicle geometry. The Hauler is built to carry standard 40-foot and 53-foot shipping containers, operating on a dock-to-dock delivery model that bypasses traditional hub handoffs.

This operational model is Humble’s key commercial differentiator. Competitors like Aurora and Kodiak use hub-to-hub networks or fixed transfer zones, where autonomous trucks hand trailers to human drivers for final delivery. These models simplify the technical challenge by avoiding complex urban and industrial environments. Humble’s bet is that true end-to-end autonomy, delivering directly to a customer’s loading dock, is what logistics operators ultimately need and will pay for.

The company’s technical strategy supports this ambition. Instead of relying on conventional, rule-based autonomous systems, Humble is developing an autonomy stack built on vision-language-action models. This AI-driven approach, the company argues, can navigate the unstructured environments of docks and distribution centers more effectively than systems constrained by the sensor blind spots of a traditional truck cab.

Eclipse, a venture firm focused on physical AI, led the funding round with participation from Energy Impact Partners. Jiten Behl, a partner at Eclipse who previously held executive roles at Rivian, articulates the compelling business case. He suggests Humble’s model could drive 30 to 50% more efficiency for logistics operators, a value proposition too significant to ignore. Notably, Behl believes scaling this technology will require far less capital than the billions consumed by other AV ventures, stating it will take “an order of magnitude less.”

The market opportunity is substantial. The US truck freight industry is valued at $906 billion, with the autonomous segment projected to grow from an estimated $575.7 million in 2026 to $3.25 billion by 2035. Regulatory trends are also favorable. The recently introduced Self Drive Act of 2026 aims to create a unified federal framework for autonomous trucking, and Humble has been actively engaged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during its development.

While the startup is not yet disclosing specific pilot partners or a detailed commercial timeline, the seed funding will accelerate development and initial pilot deployments. The central question remains whether Humble’s architectural innovation and experienced team can translate into operational reality quickly enough. The competitive landscape is advancing rapidly, with Aurora already reporting over 250,000 driverless miles and planning to deploy 200 autonomous trucks by the end of this year. Humble’s $24 million seed round is the first step in proving its unique model can deliver where it matters most, on the road and at the dock.