Startups dominate the Truck Industry Tech space, particularly in the online freight platforms segment. Despite being relatively capital-intensive, segments like autonomous trucks and electric and fuel cell trucks have attracted considerable startup activity, boosted by the self-driving vehicle industry and the declining cost of autonomous technologies in general. For example, Alphabet’s Waymo managed to bring its Laser Bear Honeycomb LiDAR prices down by around 90% to roughly USD 7,500 by 2019 from the industry norm of USD 75,000 a few years before.

All the players in the online freight platforms and route planning apps segments have commercialized their product offerings and operate either in early or growth stages. However, most of the autonomous vehicle tech developers, some safety and driving assist tools providers, and electric and fuel cell truck makers are yet to commercialize their product offerings and are hence classified as seed or pre-seed.

Most of the incumbents operating in the space are either automotive companies such as Toyota, Tesla, General Motors, Volvo, and Daimler or tech giants such as Uber. Incumbents in the route planning and online freight platforms space also include truck stop and travel center companies like TravelCenters of America and Love's Travel Stops as well as established road travel planning and freight matching companies such as Trimble MAPS,  Zonar, and Direct Freight Services.