This startup wants to bring driverless freight trucks to California's roads, but drivers are pushing back

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A Bay Area startup is trying to reinvent the semitruck by making the gas-guzzling giants electric, autonomous and designed for efficiency.Humble Robotics, founded last year in San Francisco, has raised $24 million to develop a cabless freight truck that lacks a steering wheel, gas pedal and driver’s seat.

The company says its reimagined truck could move freight across California and other states while saving money and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.Humble Robotics emerged from stealth in April with seed funding led by Eclipse Capital, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, and Energy Impact Partners.

The company is looking to capitalize on new regulations in California that could pave the way for autonomous trucks to hit public roads in the near future.But the technology still faces hurdles, experts said, and labor groups including the Teamsters are raising alarms over safety and availability of jobs.

Business Parallel Systems, a Los Angeles-based company that launched in 2020, is developing an autonomous, battery-powered train to move freight.“We’re building an electric autonomous platform for moving freight, and when we were conceiving the company, the goal was to move freight at the lowest possible cost,” said Eyal Cohen, founder and chief executive of Humble Robotics.“We just want to bring everybody along into modernizing this technology.”Cohen, who has spent nearly two decades working on electric and autonomous vehicles at companies including Uber, Apple and Waabi, said Humble’s driverless truck dubbed the Humble Hauler could begin customer pilots within the year.

In April, the California Department of Motor Vehicles revised its regulations for autonomous vehicles and lifted a ban on autonomous trucks weighing 10,001 pounds or more.Heavy-duty autonomous vehicles, however, are required to begin testing with a human safety driver and must complete 500,000...