ISEE, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of autonomous yard vans, introduced a strategic partnership with Holman on Friday. Holman, which can be an investor in ISEE, will lease, retrofit and preserve the vans that run ISEE’s autonomy system in North America.
Clients can put ISEE’s system on vans they already personal, on vans leased from Holman or on autonomous-ready autos provided by ISEE. Vehicles will likely be retrofitted and built-in earlier than supply, with Holman’s financing and fleet administration companies behind them, based on ISEE’s announcement.
Debbie Yu, president and co-founder of ISEE, mentioned prospects don’t at all times have a fleet able to automate.
“To begin with, it’s a must to work out the place to get the truck. Both purchase it, or lease it, or lease it,” Yu mentioned in an interview with BigRig. “Then we now have to retrofit the truck with our autonomy package, deploy to the shopper web site, do the upkeep, and run the yard.”
Most of that listing includes no software program in any respect.
Doing retrofits in-house would have meant hiring many extra technicians, work Yu mentioned falls outdoors ISEE’s experience. Holman has executed truck retrofitting for years and runs a nationwide community of outlets and technicians alongside its leasing enterprise, she mentioned.
Holman launched Holman Robotics, a unit that pairs financing with lifecycle administration for robotic gear, in December 2025.
“By combining Holman’s robotic fleet leasing and administration infrastructure with ISEE’s autonomous know-how, we are able to present prospects with a sensible answer masking the total automobile lifecycle,” mentioned Joe Foster, Holman’s vice chairman of robotics, in an announcement.
From pilots to fleets
ISEE didn’t want a big fleet or a lot retrofit capability whereas it was operating prototypes and pilots, Yu mentioned. She described the corporate as now at an inflection level, with a number of F100 prospects all in favour of deploying over 1000’s autonomous yard truck fleets with ISEE over the following couple of years.
Retrofits and manufacturing unit builds
Retrofits cowl vans already in service. New models come by OEMs, together with terminal tractor maker TICO, which partnered with ISEE in April 2025.
“Not simply retrofitting. We additionally have to do factory-built models by the TICO collaboration, ranging from 2027,” Yu mentioned.
That timing matches the 2027 serial manufacturing goal BigRig reported in June. ISEE will even hold working with different yard truck OEMs on new diesel, alternative-fuel and electrical fashions, based on the discharge.
Yu mentioned retrofits let operators of yard vans already working in buyer yards automate sooner.
Demand is rising as manufacturing, information facilities and infrastructure develop in america, Yu mentioned, together with from enterprise prospects “that we by no means imagined earlier than.”
“We consider it’s essential to really align the partnership rapidly,” she mentioned.
The put up ISEE companions with investor Holman on autonomous yard vans appeared first on BigRig.