Following a launch from stealth in 2020, Golden-based autonomous vehicle and logistics startup Outrider has been riding in the fast lane.
The company has already raised $118 million to date, built a team of nearly 140 employees and signed nine large enterprise customers for its autonomous distribution yard solution.
And, building on that recent success, the company has announced a patent-pending automated tractor-trailer hitching solution to further its offerings.
Since its founding, Outrider’s primary mission has been to automate the repetitive, manual aspects of yard operations. Those tasks include moving trailers around the yard, moving trailers to and from loading docks, hitching and unhitching trailers, connecting and disconnecting trailer brake lines and monitoring trailer locations.
To complete that labor, the company has built a three-part system that includes management software, electric autonomous vehicles and site infrastructure.
Amid the global supply-chain issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, founder and CEO Andrew Smith said Outrider has been able to step up.
“The technology we’re bringing to market not only allows people to move goods more safely and sustainably, but also is a check against the labor shortages for this type of work and the increasing cost,” he said.
As it builds out its autonomous yard operations, the new hitching technology represents a significant advancement for Outrider. The technology enables autonomous yard trucks to align in front of semi-trailers, back under the trailer and attach the truck to the trailer without any human intervention.
“Essentially, with the click of a button, our autonomous electric vehicles can move to trailers, connect to them and move them around yards,” Smith said, adding that the technology covers the entire range of trailer configurations found on a distribution yard.
While they grow their capabilities and latch on with more Fortune 500 companies, Smith is quick to bring up the sustainable impact the company is trying to have. He specifically referenced the recent heat wave in the Pacific Northwest as a reason for concern.
“There is no way you can automate the supply chain at this scale without doing it in a sustainable fashion,” he said. “We don’t want to go from one bad movie about a global pandemic, to another bad one about accelerating global warming. So, we’re trying to be one piece of that solution.”
Smith didn’t share Outrider plans for fundraising, offering that the company is “evaluating options” and is in a “strong financial position.”
The company’s most recent round came in October 2020, a $65 million in Series B funding led by Koch Disruptive Technologies. Other existing investors increased their investments, including NEA, 8VC and Prologis Ventures. New investors included Henry Crown and Co. and Evolv Ventures.
And, despite the initial focus on yard operations, Outrider is keeping an eye on the broad applicability of the autonomous solutions its developing.
“There’s a really nice fit between the capabilities we’ve developed to make a yard operate, with technologies that will become increasingly useful to other autonomous transportation efforts across the country and world,” Smith said.
