Exclusive: Humble, a Startup, Unveils Cabless Autonomous Truck Aiming at $900B U.S. Freight Industry

(SeaPRwire) –   A new player has joined the autonomous vehicle movement.

Humble, a startup headquartered in San Francisco, came out of stealth mode today, announcing a $24 million seed funding round and the unveiling of its fully electric autonomous freight truck, the Humble Hauler, has learned exclusively. The investment was led by Eclipse, with participation from Energy Impact Partners.

The Hauler is a cabless, self-driving platform engineered for standard 40-foot and 53-foot shipping containers. It operates on a dock-to-dock model, meaning it unloads cargo directly at its final destination instead of simply dropping a trailer. This approach differs from other autonomous trucking strategies: competitor Aurora uses a hub-to-hub system that transfers trailers to human drivers at yards near cities, and Kodiak’s commercial service depends on fixed routes without autonomous final delivery.

“Trucks were never designed to be autonomous,” Eyal Cohen, Humble’s CEO and founder, stated to . “By eliminating the cab, we can completely reimagine the vehicle for an autonomous era.”

Removing the cab enables unobstructed 360-degree sensor placement for cameras, LiDAR, and radar, while also increasing payload capacity. The vehicle’s autonomous driving system utilizes vision-language-action models, representing a more advanced approach than traditional rule-based programming.

Humble developed its initial prototype in approximately six months. Cohen’s professional history supports that rapid pace: He contributed to Otto, the firm that executed the first-ever autonomous semi-truck freight delivery in 2016, sold SparkAI to John Deere in 2023, and led hardware development at Waabi. His team includes veterans from Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, Apple, and Uber.

Jiten Behl, a partner at Eclipse and a Humble board member who joined the venture firm in January 2024, previously held the roles of Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Growth Officer at Rivian. There, he assisted in securing Amazon’s record order for 100,000 electric delivery vans and oversaw over $10 billion in financing, which included Rivian’s public offering.

He summarizes Humble’s value proposition to logistics companies in straightforward terms. “When you approach them with the potential for 30 to 50% greater operational efficiency, you have a responsibility to present that to leadership,” Behl told .

The target market is substantial. The U.S. truck freight industry is valued at $906 billion. The autonomous freight sector specifically is estimated to be worth $575.7 million in 2026, with forecasts projecting growth to $3.25 billion by 2035. Regulatory support is also building. The Self Drive Act of 2026 was formally proposed in February, aiming to create a single federal standard for autonomous trucking. Cohen met with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington last week; the agency has been involved with Humble since its early stages.

Behl contextualized the funding needed to scale product development and launch a Hauler pilot program: “This will not require a billion dollars. The capital needed is an order of magnitude lower.”

See you tomorrow,

Lily Mae Lazarus
X: @LilyMaeLazarus
Email: lily.lazarus@.com
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