Press
The latest Phantom news featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, and more. Please direct any press inquiries to press@phantomauto.com
InfraBridge Pours Millions Into Remote Forklift, Yard Truck Tech Company Phantom Auto
InfraBridge, a division of DigitalBridge, a leading infrastructure investment manager, has invested $25 million in Phantom Auto the companies announced early Tuesday. InfraBridge is also a major investor in ConGlobal, the largest operator of rail terminals in North America, with one of the largest yard truck fleets in the world with about 700 vehicles. Read More
04.27.2023
Supply chain, logistics firms show out on Time’s Best Inventions of 2022
Phantom Auto's Remote Operation Platform for Logistics features a forklift operator sitting at a computer and using a miniature steering wheel and pedals to commandeer the machine remotely. Workers have real-time, 360-degree views of their surroundings, and they can communicate with staff on the ground with two-way audio. Read More
11.18.2022
TIME Reveals Its List of 200 Best Inventions of 2022
Phantom Auto's Remote Operation Platform for Logistics is selected as one of TIME's 200 Best Inventions of 2022. Read More
11.10.2022
Autonomous Delivery and Work Drones Will Still Need a Human Minder
The development of autonomous technologies is attracting billions of dollars, but industry executives say remote operators will likely always be needed. Forklifts are among the vehicles at the cutting edge of remote-control advances, as technology increasingly allows drivers to operate them from hundreds of miles away. Read More
11.07.2022
Phantom Auto Buys Voysys To Boost Remote Operation Capabilities
Phantom Auto acquires Swedish software company Voysys AB to further improve performance. “We have developed software for the video streaming pipeline which has proven to be best-in-class when it comes to streaming latency,” said Magnus Persson, Co-founder & CEO at Voysys. “Combining our world class technologies will unlock immense value for logistics operators around the world.” Read More
10.04.2022
Interview with Phantom Co-founder Elliot Katz: Using Remote Operation to Help Solve Labor Shortage Issues in the Supply Chain
Q&A with Elliot Katz, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Phantom Auto.
Read More
08.02.2022
MHI Announces Winners of 2022 MHI Innovation Awards
The 2022 MHI Innovation Award winner for Best New Product is Phantom Auto for Remote Operation Platform Logistics. Read More
04.01.2022
MHI announces winners of annual Innovation Awards
On March 30th at Industry Night at Modex, MHI announced Phantom Auto as the winners of the 2022 MHI Innovation Awards for Best New Innovation with their Remote Operation Platform for Logistics. Read More
03.31.2022
2022 MHI Annual Industry Report is released at Modex
This year, it was revealed that 54% of supply chain companies believe talent shortages are the second biggest challenge they face today. Phantom Auto, was featured on page 20 of the 2022 industry report as an example of how a company can utilize remote operation in order to increase operational safety, efficiency, and productivity. Read More
03.30.2022
Freight Operators Plan to Deploy Thousands of Remote-Operated Forklifts
"The goal isn’t to replace workers, NFI Chief Executive Sid Brown said, but to add capacity by having people work remotely, which he said would also help recruitment, including among people who like to play videogames." Read More
01.19.2022
Logistics Giants Are Turning to Remote-Run Forklifts After Labor Crunch
"As surging omicron infections keep workers at home and labor shortages disrupt the world’s supply chains, two of the biggest logistics companies in the U.S. are looking to remote-operated equipment as a solution." Read More
01.19.2022
Logistics Giants ArcBest, NFI Pour Millions Into Remote-Operated Forklifts To Help Solve Labor Shortage
"Phantom's software makes it possible for forklifts to be remotely operated from virtually anywhere in the world with strong internet connectivity. Operators located in off-site locations, including their homes, can operate multiple forklifts, making such jobs more convenient and attractive for potential hires." Read More
01.19.2022
With U.S. labor scarce, logistics firms turn to remote forklifts
"The technology could allow one operator to pilot multiple forklifts in different locations, and the remote systems can also back up vehicles designed to operate autonomously." Read More
01.19.2022
How Germany Hopes to Get the Edge in Driverless Technology
Phantom Auto co-founder Elliot Katz was quoted in The New York Times regarding an upcoming German law that will require all AVs to have a human supervisor. Critically, the law will allow for remote supervisors to teleoperate vehicles and will apply across the entire country (vs state-by-state in the current US regulatory environment). Read More
07.14.2021
Logistics Firm Kenco Filling Forklift Jobs With Phantom Driverless Tech
“Our customers' biggest challenge is the labor market,” said Kristi Montgomery, Kenco Vice President, Innovation, Research and Development, in an interview. “The shortage of able bodied folks that can drive a lift truck and want to drive a lift truck, particularly in Atlanta, Chicago, Memphis—the competition for labor is extreme.” Read More
07.07.2021
Warehouses Look to Robots to Fill Labor Gaps, Speed Deliveries
The growth of e-commerce demand during the coronavirus pandemic added strains to what was already a tight labor market for logistics and distribution work. Kenco and France-based logistics provider Geodis SA are testing remote-operated forklifts equipped with technology from startup Phantom Auto that drivers can operate remotely using real-time video and audio streams. Read More
05.24.2021
The Costly Pursuit of Self-Driving Cars Continues On. And On. And On.
“Autonomous vehicles can be deployed today, in certain situations,” said Elliot Katz, a former lawyer who counseled many of the big autonomous vehicle companies before launching a start-up, Phantom Auto, that provides software for remotely assisting and operating self-driving vehicles when they get stuck in difficult positions. “But you still need a human in the loop." Read More
05.24.2021
Forklift Driving Becomes a Desk Job in Phantom-Mitsubishi Deal
Phantom Auto, a California-based startup focusing on remote vehicle operation, has struck a deal to provide logistics equipment heavyweight Mitsubishi Logisnext Co. with software that enables forklifts to be operated remotely from thousands of miles away.Read More
05.13.2021
Remote-controlled forklifts have arrived in France, courtesy of Phantom Auto
The aim is to use the technology to reduce operator fatigue — and the injuries that can occur as a result — as well as reduce the number of people physically inside warehouses, according to the Geodis. The use of remotely operated forklifts won’t replace employees — just where they work. It’s that detail that Geodis, which often has operations outside of city centers, finds appealing. Read More
03.31.2021
At logistics firm Geodis, driving forklifts can be an office job
“So I can be in one warehouse in Marseille in the morning and work for another warehouse in Calais in the north of France during the afternoon,” said Stéphanie Hervé, chief operating officer of Western Europe, Middle East and Africa for Geodis. Read More
03.31.2021
Geodis, Phantom Auto Partner On Remote-Driven Forklifts
If office workers can perform their duties remotely, why not forklift operators? The question isn’t rhetorical. France-based Geodis, one of the world’s biggest logistics providers, and Phantom Auto, a Silicon Valley expert in software for long-range remotely-operated unmanned vehicles, announced Wednesday a deal to develop forklifts that can be operated from as far as thousands of miles away. Read More
03.31.2021
Geodis Announces Plans for Remote-Operated Forklifts
Logistics giant Geodis SA says it plans to begin using remote-operated forklifts in its warehouses. The Paris-based company announced early March 31 that it has formed a partnership with Silicon Valley start-up Phantom Auto to supply tele-operations. Read More
03.31.2021
GEODIS, Phantom Auto Create the First Remotely Operated Forklift
GEODIS works with long-range remote operation software creator Phantom Auto on a new forklift that can be operated remotely, which it says will be the first in the industry. The program is aimed to support those in the disability community and increase safety in the workplace, and will provide forklifts that can be controlled up to thousands of miles away. Read More
03.31.2021
Scaling teleoperation of next-gen material handling equipment
As the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred warehouse and logistics operators all over the world to implement social distancing policies, the work-from-home trend is spreading to an unlikely occupation – material handlers. Read More
03.15.2021
How Teleoperation Could Enable Remote Work for More Industries
"This is about using technology to increase the safety, productivity, and impact of our people. At a fundamental level, remote operation increases our enterprise-wide operational resilience so that we can better serve the needs of our customers now and into the future..." Read More
12.10.2020
The forklift truck drivers who never leave their desks
Phantom Auto's technology is now installed in around a dozen warehouses in the US and Europe, he adds. Some see this concept, teleoperation, as a stepping stone between traditionally driven vehicles and the truly autonomous ones of the future... Read More
10.19.2020
Postmates Rolls Out Robots in Los Angeles as It Preps for IPO
Phantom Auto, which raised a $13.5 million Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners in April, has technology that enables remote human monitoring of autonomous vehicles or robots, particularly if the vehicle or robot encounters a situation that confuses it or if it gets stuck... Read More
09.23.2019
Phantom Auto Readies Autonomous Vehicles For Delivery Center Work
Sometimes, an autonomous truck isn't really autonomous. Like the yard trucks that Phantom Auto is going to put into use with its just-announced partners Autonomous Solutions, Inc and FANUC America Corporation. Phantom Auto's remote communication software - which includes tele-monitoring, tele-assistance and tele-driving - allows a remote driver to take over and give a bit of human assistance to the autonomous vehicle... Read More
03.13.2020
Teleoperation an essential enabler for the autonomous truck business model
Regardless of how the autonomous road transport business takes shape, trucks are always going to face situations they can’t handle alone... Read More
03.04.2021
Delivery Robot Operators are Also Working From Home
Peter Daniels is one of the millions of Americans working from home because of the coronavirus. Daniels, 29, stopped commuting to his job at delivery startup Postmates in mid-March. Now, instead of making a half-hour trip from his apartment in San Francisco’s Sunset District to the company’s office downtown, he moves a few feet from his bed to his desk. From there, five days a week, Daniels watches delivery robots as they roll along sidewalks 350 miles away in Los Angeles... Read More
05.13.2020
Your order is on its way, thanks to teleoperated delivery vehicles
The next phase of growth for on-demand delivery services will soon include driverless, autonomous vehicles that may be teleoperated by remote-based drivers who ensure that food and other items reach their destination. Postmates, the on-demand delivery firm based in San Francisco, is partnering with Phantom Auto, an autonomous vehicle teleoperator based in nearby Mountain View, to coordinate driverless deliveries... Read More
09.23.2019
Help wanted: Autonomous robot guide
Teleoperations — or more specifically, teleops for autonomous delivery robots — is still a niche job within an industry that has yet to dive into the deep end of the commercialization pool. However, the job, in which a human remotely monitors and guides autonomous robots, has seen growth along with rising demand for contactless delivery over the past several months... Read More
05.17.2020
Phantom Of The Operator: Self-Driving Tech’s Slowing Timetable Creates Opening For This Monitoring And Guidance Startup
Phantom Auto has rolled out its 'Phantom Core Software Development Kit' that...can be installed on any onboard computer system to provide much-needed monitoring and guidance help... Read More
01.17.2020
Phantom Auto raises $13.5M to expand remote driving business to delivery bots and forklifts
Remote driving startup Phantom Auto has raised $13.5 million of financing in a Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners — capital used to expand a logistics business targeting sidewalks, warehouses and cargo yards, all the places where autonomy and teleoperation are being deployed today... Read More
04.18.2019
When Self-Driving Cars Can’t Help Themselves, Who Takes the Wheel?
While major technology and car companies are teaching cars to drive themselves, Phantom Auto is working on remote control systems, often referred to as teleoperation, that many see as a necessary safety feature for the autonomous cars of the future. And that future is closer than you might think: California will allow companies to test autonomous... Read More
03.15.2018
The Secret Technology Helping Driverless Cars: Remote Control
Even the best driverless cars today have problems with tough driving conditions like recognizing uneven terrain or navigating difficult weather. One startup is developing technology to serve as a missing link: controlling the car by remote control... Read More
06.05.2018
Self-Driving Cars Have a Secret Weapon: Remote Control
Phantom Auto is showing off the type of remote-control capability that every major player in the nascent world of robotic driving will end up relying on... Read More
02.01.2018
Phantom Auto named a 2018 Gartner Cool Vendor in Automotive and Smart Transportation
Phantom Auto, the leading expert in software for long-range, remotely-operated software for unmanned vehicles, was recently named a 2018 Cool Vendor in Automotive and Smart Transportation by Gartner. Read More
04.20.2018
Driving your career towards a boom sector
This is a new form of driving,” says Shukman, who is employed by Phantom Auto, a small company specialising in teleoperation safety technology. “But it quickly becomes second nature. At the moment professional drivers have to spend days... Read More
10.31.2018
Teleoperator of autonomous cars takes its first steps toward public trials
What is notable is that so many companies are at least considering using an additional safety backup—in this case Phantom Auto’s tech—once human test drivers are pulled from its autonomous vehicles... Read More
06.05.2018
Why Uber and Didi Are Eyeing Remote Driving Startup Phantom Auto
What is notable is that so many companies are at least considering using an additional safety backup—in this case Phantom Auto’s tech—once human test drivers are pulled from its autonomous vehicles... Read More
06.12.2018
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