Harbinger acquires autonomous driving company Phantom AI

Electric trucking startup Harbinger has acquired autonomous driving bundle institution Phantom AI, successful an effort to vertically integrate much exertion and make caller gross streams for the young company.

The acquisition, which is Harbinger’s first, is portion of the startup’s program to steadily grow its portfolio beyond the electrical motortruck chassis it’s been gathering and selling for the past year. Just past month, Harbinger announced it would commencement selling its artillery packs for vigor retention and auxiliary power, with Airstream as the archetypal customer.

Harbinger announced Wednesday it has already lined up a lawsuit for Phantom’s precocious operator assistance tech that it conscionable acquired. German automotive exertion elephantine ZF Group has agreed to licence that tech from Harbinger, and plans to merchantability it to automakers for usage successful their rider cars. (Terms of the 2 deals were not disclosed.)

Harbinger co-founder and CEO John Harris told TechCrunch successful an exclusive interrogation that helium expects this caller bundle services concern enactment to make “millions” of dollars successful gross this year, which helium said is mostly “not material” compared to the magnitude the institution volition marque from selling its motortruck chassis. The startup precocious raised $160 million successful a backing circular co-led by FedEx and THOR Industries, some of which are customers.

Harris alternatively expects the ZF Group woody volition bring successful much important gross successful 2027 oregon 2028.

“The rider car marketplace is slower, but the volumes are very, precise large,” helium said.

Harbinger was already utilizing Phantom AI’s operator assistance tech, Harris said, and the acquisition volition spot the companies deepen that integration. Harris expects that to beryllium a large triumph for Harbinger’s ain customers.

“Medium-duty [trucking] has a implicit deficiency of information features,” helium said. “The bulk of medium-duty vehicles connected the roadworthy that person nary backup cameras, nary aerial conditioning, nary lane keeping, nary automatic exigency braking. It’s conscionable not a happening that exists successful the marketplace yet, which is crazy.”

Harbinger already promises a little full outgo of ownership for commercialized customers, amended emissions compliance, and an easier motortruck to thrust acknowledgment to the simpler, quieter electrical powertrain. But Harris thinks the information features enabled by Phantom’s tech volition marque Harbinger’s chassis that overmuch amended — particularly due to the fact that of however and wherever they thin to beryllium used.

“These vehicles, galore of them are spending their clip navigating astir motortruck ports and pulling successful and retired of neighborhoods to present packages. They’re each successful places wherever there’s a precise precocious information hazard of backing into vehicles, hitting pedestrians, hitting bicyclists, hitting children,” helium said. “We request to have, possibly not the cutting borderline 2026 information features, but we should astatine slightest person the information features that were commodity successful 2020 oregon 2015.”

While Harbinger’s office are successful Los Angeles, California, Phantom AI’s 30 employees — including its enactment squad — volition stay successful Mountain View.