Humble Robotics’ CEO says the tech finally caught up to the vision for autonomous vehicles

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the autonomous vehicle space is starting to feel like a repeat of the 2016 hype cycle. Travis Kalanick is back building a robotics company, and the talent wars and capital are heating up the same way they did the first time around.

The money’s flowing back, and it’s the people who lived through that first wave who are building the next one.  Humble Robotics founder and CEO Eyal Cohen is one of them. Cohen was at Otto when Uber came calling, later followed Anthony Levandowski to Pronto, and after two decades bouncing between deep tech bets in the Bay Area, his new company came out of stealth in April with $24 million to build a fully autonomous, cabless electric hauler for freight.  On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Cohen joins Kirsten Korosec to talk about AV déjà vu and what he’s learned from 15 years of building startups across electrification, solar, and robotics.   Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University. You can contact or verify outreach from Theresa by emailing theresa.loconsolo@techcrunch.com. View Bio November 4 Boston Last chance to save up to $190 on TechCrunch Founder Summit. Join 1,000+ founders and VCs at all stages for real-world scaling insights and connections that move the needle.Savings end June 26, 11:59 p.m. PT. Reed Jobs would rather talk about curing cancer than his last name Meta removes controversial AI feature on Instagram after backlash Elon Musk praises Mythos/Fable, promises not to ‘cut off’ Anthropic Instagram users: Here’s how to stop Meta’s AI from using your photos Feds demand autonomous vehicle companies stop interfering with first responders Open source AI matters more than ever, according to Hugging Face’s Clem Delangue Your gaming data could be the secret to AGI, according to this Bezos-backed startup