Stack AV
Pittsburgh autonomous trucking firm founded 2023 by former Argo AI leaders, backed by $1B from SoftBank, building self-driving trucks with PACCAR and Peterbilt.
Stack AV is an autonomous trucking company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, founded in September 2023 by Bryan Salesky (CEO), Peter Rander (President), and Brett Browning (CTO). All three founders previously co-founded and led Argo AI, a self-driving car company that raised over $3.6 billion from Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Group and employed more than 2,000 people before it was shut down in October 2022.
Stack AV launched with more than $1 billion in investment from SoftBank Group Corp., a figure reported by Bloomberg. The company focuses exclusively on the commercial trucking segment, developing autonomous driving systems tailored to the specific operational requirements and safety demands of freight transport.
Stack AV's technology addresses persistent structural problems in the trucking industry, including chronic driver shortages, high vehicle downtime, elevated operating costs, overarching safety concerns, and elevated emission levels. The company aims to build safe and efficient autonomous trucking solutions that create better and smarter supply chains for its partners and improve business outcomes for freight operators.
Following several years of stealth development, Stack AV unveiled its first autonomous truck platform at an industry expo in Las Vegas. This truck was developed through a collaboration with PACCAR Inc. and Peterbilt Motors Co., two major commercial truck manufacturers. Stack AV employs approximately 150 people across its Pittsburgh headquarters and operations in 15 U.S. states via a distributed work model. The company is also a member of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA).
Stack AV's founding team brings combined experience exceeding seven decades in autonomous systems, robotics, and AI development. The Pittsburgh headquarters connects the company to a broad ecosystem of autonomy talent historically associated with Carnegie Mellon University's robotics programs and the former operations of Uber ATG and Argo AI in the region.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
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WEBSITE
https://www.stackav.com/HEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2023
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
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Funding Stage
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Funding Total
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Maven Robotics Secures $100 Million in Series A Funding to Innovate Industrial Automation
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Warehouse Automation Robotics Industrial Automation Logistics Technology
Addressing Workflow Gaps in Automation Projects for Improved Efficiency
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Process / Digital Transformation
Manufacturers Shift Focus from Data Visibility to Actionable Insights
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Factory / Digital Transformation
Vention Launches Montreal AI Lab to Enhance Industrial Robotics Capabilities
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AI AI Funding & Investment Robotics Canada.Montreal computer vision industrial robotics
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Tactile sensing technology is gaining prominence in the robotics industry as humanoid robots transition from exhibition spaces to factory floors. Since 2026, funding in the tactile sensing sector has exceeded 7 billion yuan, with the penetration rate of tactile sensors in commercial humanoid dexterous hands rising from 20% to over 60% this year. This rapid growth is notable within the robotics components sector, highlighting a shift in robotic applications. While visual-language-action models have enhanced robots' environmental understanding and task planning, precision assembly and flexible grasping require tactile feedback for effective force control and slip detection. According to Qianjue Robotics founder Ma Daolin, tactile sensing is essential for high-precision industrial operations. The evolution of technology supports this need, as Qianjue Robotics' VTLA model integrates tactile modalities into traditional frameworks, enabling real-time perception of deformation, texture, and force distribution during contact. Their comprehensive tactile solution expands sensing from fingertips to palms, achieving a sensor density of 125 points per square centimeter and a force accuracy of 0.03 Newtons. As hardware costs decrease and data accumulation accelerates, tactile sensing is becoming a necessary capability in real-world operational scenarios.
Tactile Sensors Humanoid Robots Robotics Technology Industrial Automation
Fanuc and Google Collaborate on AI-Driven Welding Robots for Enhanced Automation
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The Need for New Automation Architecture in AI Factories
The rise of AI factories is transforming the landscape of industrial automation, necessitating a new architectural approach. Unlike traditional enterprise data centers, AI factories feature significantly higher rack densities, dynamic workloads, and increased power consumption, with rack-scale systems drawing over 120 kW. This shift requires integrated process control and automation strategies to manage complex cooling and power demands effectively. As AI workloads are highly dynamic, the operational challenges faced by AI factories are distinct from those of conventional data centers. Traditional control architectures are inadequate for the rapid fluctuations in power and cooling needs, leading to alarm flooding and maintenance difficulties. Organizations that adapt to these challenges through innovative strategies will gain a competitive edge in the evolving market. Looking ahead, the execution of AI projects is accelerating, with high investments and the urgency to be first to market. This environment compels project teams to finalize designs concurrently with construction, adapting to ongoing changes in equipment availability and supply chain issues. The successful navigation of these complexities will define the future of AI factory operations.
Vention Launches New Physical AI Lab in Montreal to Enhance Manufacturing Robotics
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Arms / Manipulators Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence / Cognition Assembly Automotive Cameras / Imaging / Vision
Inbolt's Robotics Solutions Address Precision Challenges in Electronics Manufacturing
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China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 3 — The Players
Five vendor archetypes, MIR’s composite top ten, eight company profiles and six field deployments — every firm linked to the RobotToday supplier directory.
China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 2 — The Technology
Linkage, tendon, direct drive or hybrid — and why hardware is converging while the DL1–DL5 manipulation scale decides who wins. Part 2 of 3.
China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 1 — The Demand Picture
MIR Databank puts China dexterous hand shipments above 30,000 units in 2026, yet only 3.5% of 2025 demand came from factory production. Part 1 of 3.
Robotics Investing: Intuitive Surgical or Unitree?
Unitree (STAR 688836) trades near 410x earnings after a 46% drawdown; Intuitive Surgical sits at 42.5x. A definition-aligned comparison of both companies.
Hugging Face Launches $399 Open-Source Microduck Robot Ahead of Christmas
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AI Robotics Hugging Face open source pollen robotics robots
ROBOTTODAY WEEKLY August 17 – 21, 2026
This week in robotics: Unitree surges 629% in its Shanghai STAR Market debut at a $66 billion valuation, Nevada approves 7,000 robotaxis, Amazon Prime Air expands to nearly 500 US cities, and Beijing's World Robot Conference marks the industry's pivot from spectacle to scale. August 17–21, 2026.
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The reference that treats planning as a subject in its own right: configuration space, sampling-based methods, RRT. Free online, dual difficulty 4/5-2/5.
Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction Richard S. Sutton & Andrew G. Barto — RSF Specialist Shelf · Book S5 of 6
“It's the AI” will not satisfy an OEM support call. Sutton & Barto turn that into something a service engineer can investigate. Free PDF, Part I 4/5.
Autonomous Mobile Robots Siegwart, Nourbakhsh & Scaramuzza — RSF Top 10 Robot Education Textbooks · No. 3
AMR and AGV fleets are the biggest robot service market. Siegwart decodes the vendor manual: odometry, localization, cost maps.
