[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] What Is the Lowest-Cost Regional Freight Format? Humble Robotics CEO Says Autonomous BEV Will Cut Into Shorthaul Costs Staff Reporter Key Takeaways: - Humble Robotics is developing a battery-electric, cabless Class 8 autonomous vehicle to move shipping containers over short distances. - The San Francisco-based startup plans a customer pilot within 12 months and later adaptation for 53-foot dry or refrigerated trailers. - Humble has raised $24 million in seed funding to support development, testing and early manufacturing. Intermodal is typically the lowest-cost longhaul freight transportation format. The lowest-cost format for moving freight over shorter distances? Many are betting on autonomous configurations of legacy tractors, but for Humble Robotics CEO Eyal Cohen, it involves a battery-electric, cabless Class 8 autonomous vehicle. Cohen, a former Apple, Otto, Uber and Waabi executive, took his vision for a platform capable of transporting a dockside shipping container to a customer from idea to prototype in six months. San Francisco-based Humble expects to complete testing and see the loading dock-to-loading dock truck transport 40-foot shipping containers in a customer pilot within the next 12 months. The vehicle design would then be adapted for 53-foot dry or refrigerated van trailers, Cohen told Transport Topics. “It’s an interesting question of ‘How do you rethink this but how do you also plug into a well-oiled machine?’ ” Cohen said in an interview, referencing the freight industry of the 21st century. “When we were working on this project, the goal was ‘How do we get the lowest cost of moving freight?’ ” he added. The vehicle is driven by vision-language-action models. The design allows for 360-degree coverage of its surroundings with camera, lidar and radar. Those systems guide a battery-electric skateboard or sled platform with a front shield