Peloton Technology gets $17M for truck platooning tech

Peloton Technology, a Silicon Valley startup providing truck platooning technology, got $17 million from strategic investors after receiving $16M this April. Denso Intl. was the lead investor in both funding rounds.

Denso is a Japanese robot maker that also provides technology and components to the global auto industry. In this latest funding, Intel and Lockheed Martin were also participants.

Peloton’s technology uses vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure wireless and radar to pair trucks to travel closely together. This creates an aerodynamic system but also a way for the trucks to communicate with each other to enable safe following, improved braking and reduced fuel costs.

Denso, besides being a provider of robotic arms for over 50 years, is also a provider of adaptive cruise control systems to the auto industry and V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) technologies in general.

Adaptive cruise control is not technically a robot but it is robotic-like in nature, and Peloton’s truck platooning technology falls into that ever-growing new category of robotic-like functionality.

Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.

Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.