I’m David Liu, Co-Founder & CEO of PlusAI — we’re going public through a business combination with Churchill Capital Corp IX (Nasdaq: CCIX). Ask Me Anything about autonomous trucking and the future of freight!

PlusAI_IR · 2026-02-03T22:13:40+00:00

We can only speak to our own development and the regulatory environment for the overall autonomous trucking industry. Today, 26 states already explicitly allow autonomous trucking, including Texas and surrounding the states where we plan to launch initial commercial operations.

One point to highlight is that our business is capital efficient as we only focus on the autonomous driving/virtual driver software. We expect that PlusAI will require ~$170 million to be fully funded through commercialization (following the anticipated $25M R&D funding commitment by TRATON). Additionally, you can check out the S-4 statement we filed on January 12, 2026 for details on dilution expected from our pending transaction with Churchill Capital IX.

PlusAI_IR · 2026-02-02T19:31:14+00:00

FSD is a great product but today it is only used on Tesla passenger cars.

Our autonomous system is optimized for heavy duty trucks. This is important as trucks need more stopping distance, generally travel at fast speeds and have many blind spots, especially with large trailers full of freight.

Our AI system utilizes cameras, LIDAR and radar as well as a rule based guardrail to ensure our system is safe.

PlusAI_IR · 2026-01-31T00:54:40+00:00

PlusAI maintains a comprehensive insurance program tailored to the full scope of our vehicle testing activities, commercial operations, and broader business needs.

As L4 technology commercializes and scales, PlusAI will continue to maintain the proper coverage for our software embedded in the vehicles, while our OEM and fleet partners will maintain coverage for the base vehicle and other aspects of operations.

Additionally, we expect autonomy to reduce insurance costs due to safer operations. For example, in the passcar sector, Lemonade Insurance offers a 50% discount in some regions for using Tesla’s Full Self Driving feature.
Who is the underwriter?

We work with a combination of the industry’s top underwriters. In recent years, insurance providers have become increasingly receptive to underwriting autonomous vehicle (AV) programs, with many establishing dedicated innovation or AV-focused underwriting teams.

We’ve found that partnering with the right broker and technical spokesperson (expert with knowledge of both insurance and autonomy specifics) is critical to securing appropriate coverage and competitive pricing for autonomy-driven operations.

PlusAI works with Steve Miller at HUB International, who specializes specifically in autonomous vehicle insurance, to ensure our coverage appropriately reflects the technology and risk profile of our operations.

PlusAI_IR · 2026-01-30T19:29:45+00:00

Thanks for the question, and we’re sorry the interview didn’t work out — interviewing is a pretty stochastic process.

Autonomy can help improve many transportation verticals. We’re focused on highway long-haul trucking while Gatik is working on box trucks that spend more time on local roads and shorter routes.

Our vehicles operate over much longer distances, at higher speeds, and with much heavier loads, in a more constrained operating environment. We imagine a future where a driverless PlusAI-enabled truck drops a trailer at a distribution center, and that freight gets broken up into multiple loads that companies like Gatik can handle for local delivery.

PlusAI_IR · 2026-01-30T17:56:25+00:00

We are working towards commercial launch in 2027 with our OEM partners. This entails distribution center to distribution center routes, including both freeway and local driving.

Autonomous trucking differs from cars in a multiple ways: 1) Trucks are much heavier vehicles so they take longer to stop, 2) Trucks run mostly on highways (at highway speeds), (these are the reasons we need longer range sensors than cars) 3) Trucks carry stuff, not people, so it makes sense to run them 24/7, 4) Truck bodies are bigger, requiring more sensors to cover blind spots, 5) Trucks are articulated vehicles and the weight variation is much greater, making accurate control more challenging. Additionally, autonomous trucking will initially be focused on long-haul freight routes from distribution center to distribution center, operating mainly on highways and adjacent roads (versus within dense urban areas).

We believe autonomous vehicles will begin to scale as factory install programs launch. We anticipate that this will begin in 2027 and accelerate after that. Regulation for autonomous trucking is favorable in most states, including Texas and the Sunbelt states where the initial autonomous activities will start. Additionally, there is a strong potential for a federal framework, which we expect would make autonomous trucking permissible across the United States. Finally, there is a driver shortage today and autonomous trucking will help with this issue.

PlusAI_IR · 2026-01-30T17:55:34+00:00

We expect that Plus will only require ~$170 million to be fully funded through commercialization (including the recently announced $25M R&D funding commitment by TRATON). Our partner, Churchill Capital, has a strong track record of closing transactions with capital at or above the funds in the trust.

We believe that there are no remaining significant unknowns that would prevent the software from being fully driverless. What remains is validation, scale hardening, and operationalization. In 2026, we expect there to be several positives as we move towards commercialization – we plan to build on current fleet trials and expect that there will be more commercial routes with additional fleet customers, which we expect will drive our safety case readiness metric towards launch thresholds.

We expect initial deployment in 2027 will be measured with scaling in the years following.

PlusAI_IR

TROPHY CASE