PlusAI, the Silicon Valley pioneer in AI-driven autonomous trucking software, stands on the cusp of a public debut via a SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp IX, with a shareholder vote set for February 3 and trading eyed for later that month. CEO David Liu, in a recent interview, described 2026 as an “inflection point” for the pre-revenue company, which has logged over six million real-world miles testing its SuperDrive system. The merger, valuing PlusAI at a $1.2 billion pre-money equity stake and poised to deliver up to $300 million in proceeds, funds the push toward factory-built autonomous trucks launching commercially in 2027, according to an Yahoo Finance report citing FreightWaves.

The S-4 registration statement, an 800-page tome detailing business plans, financials, and disclosures, was declared effective by the SEC on January 12 after a six-month review. “We announced a merger agreement with Churchill Capital back in June 2025. And for the past six months, we’ve been working through getting our S-4 filing declared effective,” Liu told FreightWaves. The deal, unanimously approved by both boards, positions PlusAI to trade under the ticker “PLS” on Nasdaq, marking its second SPAC attempt after a 2021 deal fell through.

SuperDrive’s AI Core and Safety Surge

At the heart of PlusAI’s bet is SuperDrive, an AI-native “Reasoning–Reflex” autonomy stack with rule-based guardrails and triple redundancy, trained on six million miles of data augmented by simulation. The system targets Level 4 operations—full autonomy in defined domains like highways—from warehouse to warehouse. Safety Case Readiness (SCR), measuring maturity across system architecture, processes, validation, and maintenance, hit 90.1% in late 2025, up 20 points in two years and over 15 in the past year alone. Remote Assistance Free Trips (RAFT) reached 79%, up 19 points over two years, while Autonomous Miles Percentage (AMP) stood at 99.2%, per a BusinessWire release.

“Our performance on the Safety Case Readiness and Remote Assistance Free Trips metrics demonstrate that SuperDrive™ is advancing toward commercial readiness,” Liu said. “Safety and system maturity as well as operational efficiency are foundational requirements for deploying factory-built autonomous trucks at scale.” Targets remain 100% SCR and over 90% RAFT for unsupervised driverless runs, eyed by late 2026 ahead of volume production.

PlusAI’s point-to-point model skips intermediate hubs, integrating warehouse logistics, scheduling, tracking, and dynamic rerouting for closures—challenges Liu says demand “human-like judgment” refined through real operations. Cost savings? Driver removal slashes 40% of per-mile expenses ($0.90 from $2.25), netting 10% overall after AI costs, Liu explained in a Sherwood News Q&A.

Texas Trials and Global Pilots Accelerate

Commercial trials with safety drivers are live in Texas’ Triangle—Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and now Laredo-Dallas routes—via partnerships with a top-10 U.S. carrier and Traton’s International brand. “Everyone’s looking at starting driverless trucking toward the end of this year and then volume production going into next year,” Liu noted. Europe sees pilots in Sweden and Germany, plus a three-year Level 4 program with Iveco and SES fleet in Spain—Southern Europe’s first—along corridors from Scandinavia to Iberia. Japan ties with T2 round out the expansion.

In April 2025, PlusAI hit a driver-out safety milestone; fall brought more fleet trials. Public roads in Texas and Sweden validate the drivetrain-agnostic system for diesel or electric rigs. NVIDIA’s DRIVE AGX Hyperion powers recent Level 4 advances with International, blending manufacturing heritage and AI compute for redundancy in harsh long-haul scenarios, as detailed in a Forbes update.

“Now, it’s: how do we integrate this driving with the operation within the warehouse?… Those are the things that only through real operations, real-world driving, that you will be able to detect,” Liu told Sherwood News, highlighting complexities beyond highways.

OEM Alliances Fuel Scale

PlusAI shuns retrofits, embedding SuperDrive at factories with heavyweights: Traton Group (International, Scania, MAN), Iveco, Hyundai. “OEM partnerships and factory installation are the only way to get to scale,” Liu emphasized to FreightWaves. “Fleets do not want to buy at scale from technology upstarts. They want to buy that from 100-year-old companies.” This OEM-led path ensures validation, delivery, and service via trusted channels, dodging fleet skepticism.

Founded in 2016 by Liu—on his fourth startup, all prior exits successful—PlusAI eyes a $1 trillion U.S. trucking market plus Europe’s slice. Revenue kicks in per-mile from 2026, like drivers today: under 100 Level 4 trucks in 2027, scaling to 25,000 by 2031 ($1 billion at $40,000/truck annually) and 130,000 by 2035, per illustrative projections in Sherwood News.

Ahead of listing, the board added David C. Peterschmidt (ex-Inktomi CEO who scaled to 2,000 employees and went public) and Harry J. Harczak Jr. (ex-CDW CFO, PwC partner) as audit chair. “Their addition reinforces our commitment to robust governance,” Liu said.

Rivals, Risks, and Revolution Ahead

Competitors like Aurora (public via 2021 SPAC) and Daimler-backed Torc run similar pilots. Liu sees robotaxi progress shifting industry conviction: “Over the last year with the deployment of robotaxis, people generally believe that the future is now.” Yet risks loom—non-exclusive OEM pacts terminable without cause (e.g., Iveco’s Tata talks), regulatory hurdles, IP threats—flagged in the S-4, per Forbes.

No debt and capital efficiency carry PlusAI through 2027 launch, but true cash flow awaits scale. Liu envisions factory-like transformation: “Think of modern-day factories. You don’t have many assembly-line workers versus a hundred years ago.” Ultimately, “most of the vehicles on the roads are going to be driven autonomously” in decades, automating global logistics via AI.

As X buzz builds—unusual_whales hosting Liu January 26, posts touting metrics—PlusAI readies for Nasdaq scrutiny amid freight’s driver crunch. With metrics climbing and OEMs aligned, the SPAC vote could propel trucking’s AI overhaul.