Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies is a California-based startup building electric, purpose-built heavy-duty (Class 8) truck platforms for autonomous freight that can accept any AV software and sensor stack. The platforms are non-human-drivable (no steering wheel or driver controls) and are designed with stabilized, optimized sensor placement and teleoperations capabilities to enable remote intervention around hubs. Founder and CEO Graham Doorley, who worked on sensor integration for Waymo and with OEMs such as Paccar and Daimler, created the company to address the challenges of retrofitting legacy human-centric trucks. With a recent $7 million seed round, Solo plans to finalize the design and build a battery-electric Class 8 test vehicle (a “test mule”) and begin testing this summer to inform its alpha SD1 Heavy. The company will use the funds to expand engineering headcount from eight to about 18 by the end of next month and advance vehicle development. Solo is preparing a Series A in the coming weeks and is seeking strategic investors (shippers, carriers, manufacturers, AV companies and suppliers) to help commercialize at scale and reach alpha vehicles on the road by 2024.

Total raised

$7M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Mar 2022