FREMONT, CALIFORNIA — Thieves who targeted two Nvidia-branded trailers belonging to autonomous trucking company PlusAI at its Fremont warehouse apparently expected to find valuable high-tech equipment inside. What they actually got was 40,000 pounds of sand — and they abandoned the trailers a few miles away in Newark after breaking open the doors and finding nothing of value.
Warehouse workers discovered the theft just after 9:30 a.m. on September 25. Security footage showed two unidentified semi-trucks driving around the property. The thieves had used their own tractors to forcibly separate the trailers from their glad hand couplings and haul them away. PlusAI’s own truck cabs, parked elsewhere on the property, were untouched.
The trailers were loaded with sand that PlusAI uses to simulate real freight during research and development of its autonomous trucks. One trailer featured prominent joint branding with Nvidia, which has worked with PlusAI on self-driving truck technology.
“The very apparent branding probably made them think there was very valuable equipment back there,” said VP of Marketing Lauren Kwan.
As the company was filing police and insurance reports, PlusAI’s VP of Legal received a text from a friend who had spotted the trailers parked outside an office near her workplace in Newark — just minutes from Fremont.
“I have been proud of you for your adventure and success at Plus,” the friend wrote. “Just saw two of your trucks near my work place! :)”
PlusAI sent fleet operations staff to confirm the trailers were theirs and alerted police. Newark police recovered both trailers and returned them. The trailer doors had been broken into but all the sand was still inside.
“The whole day was bizarre,” Kwan said. No arrests have been made and the case remains under investigation.
Interviews courtesy of San Francisco Standard.
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