CategoryTrucks
Overview
Locomation was a Pittsburgh-based autonomous trucking company founded in 2018 by Carnegie mellon university robotics experts. The company developed Autonomous Relay Convoy (ARC) technology enabling human-led platooning of trucks on highway routes.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 2 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
fact
Technology
Status (reported, unconfirmed)
Data & sources
Web sources
8
8 sources backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company Locomation has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1NVIDIA1× joint132 total
Most recent
Locomation on the deployment map
View the global map2 verified deployments across 2 regions, newest verified Jun 2024. Explore where Locomation's robots are operating, by place and type.
Relationships
Current leadership (2)
- Tekin Meriçli Co-founder & CTOreported, not verified
- Çetin Meriçli Co-founder & CEOreported, not verified
Founders (5)
- Çetin Meriçlicofounderno longer at company
- Tekin Meriçlicofounderno longer at company
- Michael Georgecofounderno longer at company
- Venkat Rajagopalancofounderno longer at company
- Alonzo Kellycofounderno longer at company
Safety record
No incidents on record for Locomation.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Operator customers (1)
- Locomation2 deployments
Recent coverage
Locomation in third-party press
Peers
88 peers across 1 segment. Every Locomation competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
av(88)
57 companies in this segment · highly_concentrated (HHI 4969.122215850638) · leader Waymo at 6990%
- Humble Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Ikedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- KargoBotdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Kodiak Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Trunk.Techdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- A&K Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
Mentioned on (6)
Registry pages whose text names Locomation.
Robots and products (1)
People (5)
Tekin Meriçli, Çetin Meriçli, Alonzo Kelly, Venkat Rajagopalan, Michael George
Financial state
- Total funding
- $14.0M
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
1 total · 1 operating
Every company Locomation has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
Most-frequent partners
- 1NVIDIA1× joint132 total
Timeline
Every recorded move in Locomation’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Funding roundSeries A funding round
2020-10-01Series A raising $14000000
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdAug 8, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment recordedJun 1, 2024
ARC (Autonomous Relay Convoy) at United States
- Deployment recordedJun 1, 2024
ARC (Autonomous Relay Convoy) at Germany, Europe
Sources (8)
- https://www.truckinginfo.com/news/locomation-autonomous-relay-convoys-still-truckin
- https://technical.ly/startups/locomation-shutdown-autonomous-trucking-pittsburgh/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-driving_truck
- https://mobility21.cmu.edu/pittsburghs-locomation-to-test-autonomous-trucking-convoys/
- https://mobility21.cmu.edu/pittsburghs-locomation-to-test-autonomous-trucking-convoys/
- https://mobility21.cmu.edu/pittsburghs-locomation-to-test-autonomous-trucking-convoys/
- https://mobility21.cmu.edu/pittsburghs-locomation-to-test-autonomous-trucking-convoys/
- https://mobility21.cmu.edu/pittsburghs-locomation-to-test-autonomous-trucking-convoys/
Common questions
What is Locomation?
What does Locomation make?
Who competes with Locomation?
Who is the CEO of Locomation?
Where is Locomation headquartered?
How much funding has Locomation raised?
Where does Locomation operate robots?
How many robots has Locomation deployed?
Is Locomation a top robotics company?
Is Locomation safe?
Methodology: Verified · 8 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-10-13
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-10-13
Sources by quality tier
- 7
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
- 1
- knowledge-base
- Knowledge base
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Locomation.Peer companies
- Waymo5 models
- Tesla4 models
- Volvo Autonomous Solutions4 models
- Aurora Innovation3 models
- Plus3 models
- Caterpillar2 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Locomation from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Stevens Trucking Selects Locomation to Deploy its Autonomous Truck Service
Locomation: Autonomous Relay Convoys Still Truckin'
Locomation's Çetin Meriçli joins Atlas Robotics as CEO and brings firm's headquarters to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh autonomous trucking company Locomation is reportedly shutting down
Locomation demos its autonomous trucks as it preps for pilot launch
Destination unknown? Pittsburgh’s autonomous vehicle industry seeks a new course after a disastrous season.
Who’s Who in Self-Driving Truck Development
Stevens Trucking to equip existing fleet with autonomous technology
Stevens Trucking goes autonomous trucks with Locomation
Locomation gets 8-year deal with Stevens Trucking for autonomous convoys
Locomation poised to start rolling out autonomous trucking technology at scale in 2023
Christenson Transportation signs with Locomation to deploy 500 autonomous trucks
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/locomation.md
- RSS feed: /companies/locomation/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/4449c7e4-1685-4876-b556-ebaa93778f81
- Revision history: /companies/locomation/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Waymo5 models
- Tesla4 models
- Volvo Autonomous Solutions4 models
- Aurora Innovation3 models
- Plus3 models
- Caterpillar2 models
Heat Index
Category contender77/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Locomation draws attention at the 11th percentile but verifies reality at the 28th percentile among truck robots. Hype Gap -16.8, 33rd widest among truck robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 2 verified deployments. Deployment footprint remains limited relative to category peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Nov 7, 2026