Electric truck startup Harbinger has acquired self-driving software company Phantom AI, in an effort to vertically integrate more technology and create new revenue streams for the new company.
The acquisition, which is Harbinger’s first, is part of the startup’s plan to steadily expand its portfolio beyond the electric truck chassis it has been building and selling for the past year. Just last month, Harbinger announced that it would begin selling its batteries for energy storage and utility power with the Airstream as a first customer.
Harbinger announced Wednesday that it has already landed a customer for its newly acquired Phantom advanced driver assistance technology. German automotive technology giant ZF Group has agreed to license the technology from Harbinger and plans to sell it to automakers for use in their passenger cars. (Terms of the two deals were not disclosed.)
Harbinger co-founder and CEO John Harris told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview that he expects this new software services business line to bring in “millions” of dollars in revenue this year, which he said is mostly “insignificant” compared to what the company will earn from selling its truck chassis. The startup recently raised $160 million in a funding round led by FedEx and THOR Industries, who are both customers.
Instead, Harris expects the ZF Group deal to generate more substantial revenue in 2027 or 2028.
“The passenger car market is slower, but the volumes are very, very large,” he said.
Harbinger was already using Phantom AI driver assistance technology, Harris said, and the acquisition will see the companies deepen that integration. Harris expects this to be a big win for Harbinger’s own customers.
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“Medium duty [trucking] it has a complete lack of safety features,” he said. “The majority of midsize vehicles on the road that don’t have backup cameras, don’t have air conditioning, don’t have lane keeping, don’t have automatic emergency braking. It’s not something that’s on the market yet, which is crazy.”
The Harbinger already promises a lower total cost of ownership for commercial customers, better emissions compliance and an easier-to-drive truck thanks to its simpler, quieter electric powertrain. But Harris believes the safety features enabled by the Phantom’s technology will make the Harbinger’s chassis that much better — especially because of how and where they tend to be used.
“These vehicles, many of them spend their time navigating truck ports and going in and out of neighborhoods to deliver packages. They’re all in places where there’s a very high safety risk of them backing into vehicles, hitting pedestrians, hitting bicyclists, hitting children,” he said. “We need to have, maybe not the advanced safety features of 2026, but we should at least have the safety features that were a commodity in 2020 or 2015.”
While Harbinger is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Phantom AI’s 30 employees — including its leadership team — will remain in Mountain View.
