Autonomous Trucking

In Robotics Funding Right Now, Boring Beats Brilliant

Two robotics companies raised roughly $200 million each in the same stretch of August, and only one of them can point to trucks already running on real customer routes with no one behind the wheel. The other raised its $200 million on the promise that a single model will eventually drive, walk, or grip its way across just about any robot body you hand it. Both bets might turn out fine. But they are not the same bet, and the gap between them is the clearest read yet on what “boring” actually buys a hardware founder right now.