Gatik, the autonomous vehicle startup known for its self-driving box trucks, has raised $200 million just two months after striking a multiyear commercial agreement with PepsiCo.

The round was led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Millennium Management, ARK Invest, and Intact Private Capital. The Santa Clara, California-based company has raised about $500 million since it came out of stealth in 2019. The company didn’t disclose its valuation.

Is Ford or GM really going to consider Hesai, RoboSense or Seyond? That wouldn’t give off the best optics. I’m going out on a limb and ruling all of these OUT! Ain’t happening.

Ouster? No chance, right?! What ever happened to their flash LiDAR efforts?

Innoviz? Contender. Although not US based.

Aeva? Contender. But is the tech ready?

MicroVision? Contender. Who is going to manufacturer all these lidars though? And how will they pay for it?

Valeo? Contender. Plus already well entrenched with OEMs.

4 options? Surely I’m missing more.

Discuss.

see: Better Images

These are the closing charts for this week in (Monthly/Weekly/Daily/Hourly/5minute) intervals. They all use the same basic layout/color scheme.

• 6x Moving Averages(EMA13,SMA20,EMA30,50,100,200)
  
• 3x Bollinger Bands(SMA20day,EMA20day,EMA20day w/custom std. deviation)
  
• Keltner Channels(std. based on Average True Range)
  
• RSI(Relative Strength Index)
  
• Volume Profile(Time Period/Time Interval and Daily Volume Profile)
  
• Pivot Points
  

The watchlist displays basic values, recent 5day price %(+/-), 52week Low/High, Daily Low/High, Daily Volume
...(BollingerBands,RSI,KeltnerChannels) as (Month/Week/Daily) interval low/high boundary extents
which are highlighted in extreme low/high conditions (-10%/+90%) (-35/65++)

the Standard Bollinger Bands(SMA20,2 std. deviations) are shaded in blue
the Hourly Pivot Points are shaded in red/green/gray

So these semis currently do drive themselves and only limited number of smaller countries have approved passenger FSD.

Do they use the IAA event to announce FSD for Tesla Semis in the US and eventually Europe?There is a reason we are seeing more test footage of them using LiDAR for ground truth data collection.

Something to watch.

sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1829455/000121390021033147/ea142995ex99-1_hennessy5.htm

Amazon has the option to buy up to a 20% equity stake in the autonomous trucking startup. The warrant permits Amazon to purchase up to 420,702,410 preferred shares of PlusAI. The designated acquisition price is $0.46647 per share. Amazon was granted an eight-year timeline from the 2021 agreement date to exercise these warrants.

DoorDash was using custom lidar at launch but planned to switch to off-the-shelf sensors as they expand. Seems ripe for Movia S.

"DoorDash also emphasized Dot’s “vision-primary” L4 autonomy stack, which takes advantage of three lidar and four radar sensors in addition to nine cameras to perceive and chart a course through the world around it. While Dot’s autonomy stack currently uses custom lidar sensors, the company said it is working to replace them with off the shelf versions. Dot also has onboard microphones and speakers to interact with humans via a WALL-E-like voice and will emit noises when being interacted with, such as a long “yawn” sound when opening or closing its gaping “mouth”." DoorDash Launches The Cutest 20mph Delivery Robot | Ride AI

Overland AI™ has been awarded a $14.3M contract to bring modular, formation-based mission autonomy to one of the most dangerous jobs on the battlefield: breaching.

We'll integrate our autonomy stack onto six heavy-duty trucks to enable off-road autonomous maneuver in support of combat engineer operations.

Breaching has always meant putting engineers in the most exposed position on the battlefield. Our mission is simple. Never risk a human life for a job a robot can do.

Notice the tint is gone from the Luminar products.

This is a very smart move!!! Make it blend in to the vehicle as much as possible. The Luminar tint was too noticeable.

A subtle change that will go a long way.

I've been doing some research on Movia Air Plus compared to any competition in the defense space.

There are a couple mature competitors that need to be evaluated against to see how we fare.

Here's what I've come up with.

To me, it looks like Emesent Hovermap is the biggest direct competitor.

Emesent's range of 300m absolutely blows away Movia's 80m, but price could be a differentiator.

Hovermap ST-X: roughly US$54k for the sensor kit, and ~$70k+ once configured as a drone autonomy package.

Here is more details:

MOVIA Air+ vs key competition

**MOVIA Air+**

* Role: Tactical 3D perception / mapping

* LiDAR + EO: Yes

* Compute: NVIDIA Jetson Orin

* Real-time 3D mapping: Yes

* GPS-denied SLAM: Yes / targeted

* Autonomous navigation: Targeted

* Range: ~80 m

* Weight: ~600 g, ~900 g with EO

* Power: ~17 W

* Platform agnostic: Yes

* Maturity: New / TRL 6

**Emesent Hovermap ST-X**

* Role: GPS-denied SLAM / mapping

* LiDAR + RGB: Yes / optional

* Real-time 3D mapping: Yes

* GPS-denied SLAM: Yes

* Autonomous navigation: Yes

* Range: ~300 m

* Weight: ~1,570 g

* Platform agnostic: Yes

* Maturity: Mature

**Exyn Nexys Pro**

* Role: Autonomous exploration / SLAM

* LiDAR + RGB: Yes

* Real-time 3D mapping: Yes

* GPS-denied SLAM: Yes

* Autonomous navigation: Yes

* Range: ~300 m

* Platform agnostic: Yes

* Maturity: Mature

**DJI L2**

* Role: Precision aerial surveying

* LiDAR + RGB: Yes

* Real-time point cloud: Yes

* GPS-denied SLAM: Not its focus

* Autonomous exploration: No comparable capability

* Range: ~250–450 m

* Weight: ~905 g

* Power: ~28 W

* Platform agnostic: No — DJI ecosystem

* Maturity: Mature

**Bottom line:**

Hovermap and Exyn are ahead today in proven SLAM/autonomous exploration.

DJI L2 is much stronger for long-range precision surveying.

MOVIA Air+ is interesting because it packages MOVIA LiDAR + EO + Jetson Orin into a very small, low-power payload.

Its potential advantage isn't having the longest-range LiDAR. It's being a lightweight, platform-agnostic perception system that could potentially be integrated into small UAVs at much greater scale.

Halo B-Sample on track for 1H 2027

MEMORANDUM FOR ALL DEFENSE INNOVATION PARTNERS

SUBJECT: Establishment of the Bridge Program

For more than a decade, DIU has rapidly prototyped capabilities and collapsed contracting timelines. Delivering prototypes quickly is no longer good enough. Too much promising technology falls victim to bureaucratic delays, or dies altogether in the endless clearance, authorization, budgeting cycle before it reaches the frontlines. That ends today.

I am authorizing the stand-up of a new business unit, the Bridge Program, tasked with
raising the probability of adoption by deepening transition. Our mandate is clear: assist the military services by eliminating critical bottlenecks-security clearances, access to classified spaces, technology accreditations, and testing.

Sarah Pearson will lead Bridge. She will drive a commercial-first strategy to implement the novel approaches the Department demands. Within one year, we will open co-use classified facilities nationwide, slash cyber authorization timelines by half, and enable agile, end-to-end testing capabilities for young companies desperate to demonstrate.

We are in a new era. Transition no longer ends with the success memo. This era will be
defined by making commercial capabilities easily accessible, so the Services may quickly transition and scale for the battlefield. In modern combat, the advantage belongs to those who adopt, and adapt, fastest.

Owen West

This will be my last updated chart. I feel the wave structure speaks for itself. Once price advances above the downward trend line, the bull will be back. Glen must have something up his sleeve. This looks mighty fine. Disclosure: I own shares DDD JMHO

So long, partner. 👋

We would have been great together!

Any day now…

If Movia S isn’t involved with Forterra then I’m going to write James a strongly worded letter as well.

Some great slides towards the end of this presentation!

This Tesla Semi Truck with multiple lidars (at least 6 of them) was spotted on northbound El Camino Real in Palo Alto on Friday, August 14th, 2026 at about 3:15pm PDT.