Plus mentioned its mission is to ship autonomous driving software program that creates worth in industrial trucking. | Supply: Plus
Plus Automation Inc., which is commercializing software program and synthetic intelligence for autonomous vans, yesterday introduced that it’s going public. Churchill Capital Corp IX, a particular function acquisition firm or SPAC, acquired the corporate. The mixed entity will function as PlusAI.
“Trucking is the spine of the worldwide economic system, however the trade faces a persistent driver scarcity that autonomous trucking has the potential to unravel,” said Michael Klein, chairman and CEO of Churchill IX.
“Broad adoption is determined by confidence in car efficiency and security, and Plus stands out with its superior digital driver platform and a customer-centric commercialization mannequin led by OEM companions,” he added. “With a software-focused, capital-efficient mannequin, Plus is well-positioned to scale, and we’re excited to companion with their proficient staff to help the corporate’s subsequent part of progress.”
Based in 2016 by expertise entrepreneurs with expertise in engineering, AI, and machine studying, Plus got down to develop a digital driver system. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm has deployed autonomous car expertise throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Up to now, its expertise has been used for greater than 5 million miles of driving.
SuperDrive permits Degree 4 autonomous vans
SuperDrive is the core of the Plus expertise suite. The system permits SAE Degree 4 autonomous driving, mentioned the corporate. It encompasses a three-layer redundancy structure and is purpose-built to autonomously function heavy industrial vans.
In April 2025, Plus mentioned it achieved a key driver-out security validation milestone with SuperDrive. The corporate is at present conducting public street testing in Texas and Sweden, with extra buyer fleet trials scheduled for the autumn of 2025.
Plus is concentrating on the industrial launch of SuperDrive-enabled, factory-built autonomous vans in 2027, starting within the U.S. after which increasing into Europe. The firm additionally maintains operations in California, Texas, and Germany to help commercialization and deployment.
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Plus lets OEMs paved the way to commercialization
Plus has centered its go-to-market technique on deep integration with industrial car makers, like TRATON GROUP, Hyundai, and IVECO. The corporate mentioned it expects these OEMs to factory-build, validate, ship, and help autonomous vans powered by its digital driver.
This OEM-led mannequin permits for scalable deployment by means of trusted manufacturing and repair channels, famous Plus. These channels present fleet operators with a path to autonomy, it mentioned. Supporting this mannequin are strategic collaborations with trade gamers reminiscent of DSV, Bosch, and NVIDIA, that are working alongside Plus and its OEM companions to speed up the rollout of autonomous capabilities to industrial fleets.
In November, Plus and IVECO launched an automatic trucking pilot in Germany. The businesses are working with dm-drogerie markt, a big European retail chain of drugstores, and DSV, a transport and logistics supplier based mostly in Denmark.
The pilot will contain an IVECO heavy-duty truck built-in with AI-based, driver-supervised, extremely automated driving software program. The truck will drive alongside a DSV route to move dm-drogerie markt merchandise in Germany’s Baden Württemberg-Hessen area.
SPAC transaction price $300M
The transaction values Plus at a pre-money fairness worth of $1.2 billion. The corporate mentioned it expects to achieve $300 million in gross proceeds from the transaction. Plus mentioned this funding will fund it by means of the deliberate industrial launch of factory-built autonomous vans in 2027.
The transaction has been unanimously accepted by the boards of administrators of each Plus and Churchill IX and is predicted to shut within the fourth quarter of 2025, topic to satisfaction of customary closing situations, together with approval by shareholders of every firm.
