# Bot Auto: company

Canonical ID: `09f2d59b-bded-431b-86c9-340a4177df30`

## Key facts

- **Founded:** 2023, Houston, by Xiaodi Hou (TuSimple co-founder, former CTO/CEO)
- **Funding / scale:** Private; ~$40M raised; ~12 tractors, ~80 employees, 25+ contracted customers
- **Milestone:** America's first fully humanless commercial OTR truckload (Houston-Dallas, Apr 29 2026; no observer, no remote operator; paid freight). Sustained recurring service is claimed but not yet independently verified.
- **Platform:** Retrofits Freightliner Cascadia tractors; operates as its own motor carrier
- **Autonomy:** Transformer-based 'foundation-to-all' end-to-end L4 stack; no separate product brand name

- **Slug:** bot-auto
- **Status:** private
- **Founded:** 2023
- **HQ:** Houston, Texas, USA

## Models

- [Bot Auto Autonomous Truck](/models/bot-auto-truck.md) (truck) (id: `de97eab8-d5d2-460f-9bbc-4f04ca9f5c5e`)

## Supplies to

_No verified supply relationships on file. Supply-chain coverage is being added across the registry; check back as the seed populates this company's outbound edges._

_Outbound supply edges. Each appears when verified with at least two strong sources. Sources are append-only; corrections add new sources rather than rewrite history._

## Sources (11)

1. https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/02/tusimple-founder-xiaodi-hou-is-back-with-a-new-autonomous-truck-startup/
2. https://www.truckinginfo.com/news/tusimple-co-founder-launches-new-bot-auto-autonomous-trucking-venture
3. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/bot-auto-and-the-return-of-xiaodi-hou
4. https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/tusimple-bot-auto/
5. https://www.ttnews.com/articles/hou-scores-legal-victory
6. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bot-auto-achieves-insurance-milestone-paving-the-way-for-commercial-driverless-freight-operations-302611546.html
7. https://bot.auto/press/houston-we-don-t-have-a-problem-bot-auto-delivers-america%E2%80%99s-first-fully-humanless-commercial-truckload
8. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/houston-we-dont-have-a-problem-bot-auto-delivers-americas-first-fully-humanless-commercial-truckload-302757935.html
9. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/bot-auto-first-humanless-commercial-truckload
10. https://www.axios.com/2026/04/30/bot-auto-delivers-first-freight-load-with-no-one-in-the-cab
11. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-20-broker-ryan-transportation-partners-with-bot-auto-for-full-driverless-operations-in-texas-302696328.html

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