The shakeout in autonomous trucking struck in full force in 2023, leaving three leaders targeting commercial routes without humans in the cab and a couple of late entries on the periphery. Embark Trucks became the first to fall in March, laying off 70% of its San Francisco-based employees and prompting an emotional goodbye from co-founder Alex Rodrigues.

Rodrigues and mid-20s co-founder and college buddy Brandon Moak stood to garner hundreds of millions when Embark went public via special purpose acquisition merger with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. in November 2021.