PlusAI will merge with Churchill Capital, a special purpose acquisition company.
In another sign that the widespread deployment of autonomous trucks is drawing near, Plus Automation has announced it is going public.
Autonomous truck technology developer Kodiak Robotics made a similar move earlier this year.
Plus is a physical AI company commercializing AI-based virtual driver software for autonomous trucks. The company will merge with Churchill Capital, a special purpose acquisition company.
Upon completion of a definitive business combination agreement, the combined company will operate as PlusAI.
Driving Intelligence
“Physical AI will be transformative across industries,” said Michael Klein, chairman and CEO of Churchill IX. “Trucking is the backbone of the global economy. But the industry faces a persistent driver shortage that autonomous trucking has the potential to solve.
“Broad adoption depends on confidence in vehicle performance and safety, and Plus stands out with its advanced virtual driver platform and a customer-centric commercialization model led by OEM partners.”
Plus was founded in Silicon Valley in 2016 by technology entrepreneurs with expertise in engineering, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
As an early adopter of the Autonomous Vehicle 2.0 paradigm, Plus said it has pioneered a more efficient development approach. It replaced hand-coded software with AI models to enable scalable, adaptive autonomy for physical applications.
Since then, Plus has deployed autonomous driving technology across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
So far, it’s autonomous vehicle control systems have logged more than five million miles of driving. These real-world operations have generated a proprietary dataset that fuels Plus’s technology development, the company said.
Leveraging this data and advanced generative AI models, Plus has built a generalizable “driving intelligence” platform using auto-labeling, model distillation, and highly optimized in-vehicle neural networks.
Plus’s self-driving system, SuperDrive, features a three-layer redundancy architecture and is purpose-built to autonomously operate heavy commercial trucks.
In April 2025, Plus achieved a key driver-out safety validation milestone with SuperDrive.
Plus is currently conducting public road testing in Texas and Sweden with additional customer fleet trials scheduled for fall of 2025.
OEM-Led Commercialization Strategy
Plus said its go-to-market strategy is centered on deep integration with leading global commercial vehicle makers.
These include the Traton Group, Hyundai, and Iveco.
PlusAI is currently conducting extensive road trials in Europe in partnership with Iveco.
The goal of these OME partnerships is factory-build, validate, deliver, and support autonomous trucks powered by Plus’s virtual driver.
According to Plus, this OEM-led model enables scalable deployment through trusted manufacturing and service channels, providing fleet operators with a seamless path to autonomy.
Supporting this model are strategic collaborations with key industry players such as DSV, Bosch, Nvidia, Cummins and others. All of which are working alongside Plus and its OEM partners to accelerate the rollout of autonomous capabilities to commercial fleets.
Plus is targeting the commercial launch of SuperDrive-enabled, factory-built autonomous trucks in 2027, beginning in the United States and then expanding into Europe.
Plus maintains operations in California, Texas, and Germany to support commercialization and deployment.
“Since founding Plus in 2016, we have made significant progress in building advanced AI technology to enable safe and scalable autonomous trucking,” David Liu, co-founder and CEO of Plus. “From applying learnings from early deployments to forging trusted OEM partnerships, we believe that we are well positioned to deploy a leading virtual driver and deliver it to market through factory-built trucks supported by global vehicle manufacturers. Our long-term vision is to empower fleet operators to run global freight networks with autonomous vehicles that improve safety, enhance efficiency, and reduce costs. We believe the industry is at a critical inflection point, driven by breakthroughs in AI, supportive regulatory momentum, and ecosystem readiness. This transaction provides access to capital and strategic support that will help us advance our product roadmap, execute our development and commercialization strategy, and deliver a transformative logistics solution to one of the world’s largest and most essential industries.”
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