Embark Trucks

Embark Trucks (also referred to as Embark Technology) was a San Francisco-based developer of autonomous driving software for Class 8 semi trucks. Rather than manufacturing trucks, the company built what it called the Embark Driver — automotive-grade self-driving software intended to convert existing carrier fleets into autonomous ones, using multiple redundant sensors for perception. Its operating concept split long-haul freight movement into segments: a local human driver would take freight from a warehouse to the interstate and drop it at a transfer point, Embark's software would handle the highway portion autonomously, and a second local driver would complete the final delivery leg.

The company was headquartered in San Francisco's Mission district, and at various points operated facilities in Southern California (including the Los Angeles suburb of Ontario) and Houston. It ran a daily freight service on the Los Angeles-to-Phoenix route, and by June 2018 said its system could complete that route end to end without disengagements, including lane changes, merges, on- and off-ramps and Los Angeles metro traffic. Embark described itself as the first self-driving truck company to complete an autonomous coast-to-coast drive, the first to reach 100,000 miles driven on public roads, and the first to open a network of transfer points. Work in its later years addressed operational questions including work-zone safety, integration with human-driven drayage, transfer point networks, maintenance, snow driving and interactions with law enforcement.

Embark went public on the Nasdaq under the ticker EMBK in November 2021 through a merger with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company, in a deal valued at $5.2 billion. It never reached revenue, and in March 2023 laid off approximately 230 people (about 70% of staff), closed its Southern California and Houston offices, and began winding down. In May 2023 it agreed to be acquired by autonomous-vehicle simulation and software provider Applied Intuition for about $71 million in cash.

Founding story

Co-founders Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak met while pursuing mechatronics engineering degrees at the University of Waterloo, where they built what has been described as Canada's first self-driving vehicle — a golf cart named "Marvin" used to give campus tours. Both left college before moving to the Bay Area. Rodrigues, who began building robots at age 11 and won a world robotics championship as a middle schooler, is a Thiel Fellowship recipient; he and Moak were accepted into Y Combinator, where Embark launched in 2016. Rodrigues has said truckers and fleets approached the team about applying their self-driving work to trucking, and has separately recounted being prompted by a roadside tire blowout during which every passing 18-wheeler displayed a "Drivers Wanted" sign, signalling a driver shortage.

Business model

Embark sold software rather than trucks: an automotive-grade autonomous driving stack designed to be integrated into carriers' existing fleets, converting conventional trucks into self-driving ones for the highway portion of long-haul routes, with human drivers handling first- and last-mile drayage. The company was pre-revenue through its public-market period.

Traction

By June 2018 Embark's system could complete the Los Angeles-to-Phoenix freight route end to end without disengagements, and the company ran daily service on that route. In February 2018 it completed a 2,400-mile Los Angeles-to-Jacksonville, Florida drive with a safety driver, taking five days due to scheduled rest breaks. Embark reported industry firsts including an autonomous coast-to-coast drive, 100,000 miles driven on public roads and a network of transfer points, and delivered its first Embark-powered truck to Knight-Swift in December 2022. It reported about $190 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of Q3 2022 and remained pre-revenue.

Latest developments

In May 2023 Applied Intuition agreed to acquire Embark in an all-cash transaction with an equity value of approximately $71 million, paying Embark shareholders $2.88 per share. The deal, approved unanimously by both boards, was expected to close in the third quarter of 2023, after which Embark shares would cease trading on the Nasdaq, with key Embark employees moving to Applied Intuition.