Two trailers bearing Nvidia and PlusAI branding were stolen from a Fremont warehouse late Wednesday. They carried about 20 tons of sand that PlusAI uses to simulate freight loads during testing.
PlusAI, a self-driving trucking company headquartered in Santa Clara, has a warehouse in Fremont, according to The San Francisco Standard. Warehouse workers discovered the theft Thursday morning and reported it to the Fremont Police Department just after 9:30 a.m., per the same account. The trailer locks appeared to have been forced off, while PlusAI's cabs, parked elsewhere on the property, were left untouched.
The Stolen Trailers
The two trailers carried 20 tons of sand combined.
The Standard reported that the trailers were later found dumped.
Trailers Dumped With Sand Cargo
The trailers were found dumped with the sand still aboard. The Standard reported that PlusAI uses sand to simulate real freight in research and development of its SuperDrive virtual driver system.
A separate cargo-theft case involved 2 million dimes stolen from a truckload of coins bound from the U.S. Mint; four people faced federal charges, according to Sudbury.com.
PlusAI's Broader Autonomous-Trucking Push
PlusAI, founded in Silicon Valley in 2016, has positioned itself as a leader in AI-based virtual driver software for autonomous trucks, according to a release from automotive-era.com. The company says its SuperDrive system has been trained on more than seven million miles of real-world operations across the United States, Europe and Asia.
The same release says PlusAI expanded its partnership with TRATON Group to accelerate autonomous-truck development and deployment. It also describes customer fleet trials launched last year along the I-35 corridor between Laredo and Dallas, using tractors with factory-installed autonomous-driving equipment.
What California’s testing records show
California DMV records list PLUSAI, INC. among manufacturers with an autonomous-vehicle testing permit with a safety driver. The agency says the permit authorizes testing on any public road in California. That statewide authorization does not establish that PlusAI tested in Fremont or elsewhere in Alameda County, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
