Embark Technology, a company in California has found a way to put self-driving pickup trucks on the road and test in Texasappears to be no more, according to an email from Embark’s CEO to employees seen by Automotive News. In the email, Alex Rodrigues, CEO, said he was “sorry”.
In case you lost it:
Embark was founded in 2016, according to its websiteand will follow another self-driving company — Argo AI —to the end, after Argo stopped working last October.
Rodrigues’ email sounds like a failure:
Rodrigues cited an inability to raise capital and a delay in the “prospects of large-scale commercial deployment” of self-driving trucking for closure.
“Today I write to you with a heavy heart. Rodrigues said the past nine months have been difficult for the self-driving trucking industry and for Embark, a market that has already turned its back on companies with no revenue.
“In challenging times, it is the duty of the company as a whole to be flexible and optimistic in pursuing an sometimes changing direction — and it is the duty of the CEO to navigate the challenges and ensure that those directions will eventually lead the group to the other side. You kept the end of that bargain, I can’t keep mine – for that I’m deeply sorry,” he wrote.
G/O Media can receive commission
According to documents filed with the SEC on Friday, Embark will reduce its workforce to 230 employees, though car news said they would still be paid through June 2 and still receive health care through the end of August. That SEC document also says the following:
On 1 March 2023, the Company’s Board of Directors (“Board”) approved a process to explore, review and evaluate a range of potential strategic alternatives that the Company may use, including but not limited to, exploring alternative uses of the Company. assets for technology commercialization, additional sources of financing, as well as the possibility of dissolution or closure of the Company and liquidation of its assets.
Still, car news said that the remaining employees at Embark will take time to close the business and liquidate.
Embark’s stock traded at $3.88 on Friday, making it valued at just over $90 million, a huge drop from a few years ago, when it traded for more than 50 times. .
