Trucks VC fielded pitches from 81 new autonomous vehicle startups in 2026, two-thirds more than the previous year and surpassing the boom years of 2016 and 2017. The VC firm attributes the surge to technological breakthroughs in AI, particularly foundation models that enable end-to-end autonomous vehicle architectures.
Puneeth Meruva, a partner at Trucks VC, said foundation models "provide a technical architecture that makes those end-to-end systems possible." Open source models like Nvidia's Alpamayo and Qwen's vision-language-action models have lowered barriers to entry. Meruva noted that Trucks consistently sees startups deploy within a few months with less than $1 million raised.
Among the 81 pitches, startups focused on construction, warehousing, agriculture, and mining appeared alongside a growing number positioning themselves as robotaxi competitors to Waymo. Meruva sees room for smaller players competing in specific regions or routes rather than globally.
Separate mobility developments include Bedrock Robotics raising $600 million in Series C funding, valuing the autonomous vehicle technology startup at $4.1 billion. CapitalG and Emergence Capital co-led the round, with US Innovative Technology Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Temasek participating alongside existing investors.
Kodiak AI secured its first binding commercial deal, agreeing to deliver 75 self-driving trucks to freight company DTL Transport starting in 2028 for public highway operations. Waymo and Toyota locked in a manufacturing partnership where Toyota will produce AV-ready bZ4X vehicles integrating Waymo's self-driving system at its Japan factory for robotaxi services in Japan, the U.K., and other markets.