Abstract:
PlusAI, an American self-driving truck company, recently experienced a dramatic theft. Two large trailers bearing the logos of Nvidia and PlusAI were stolen from a warehouse in Fremont, California, late at night, but the thieves soon discovered that what was inside the carriages was not valuable AI chips or server equipment, but a total of about 20 tons of sand used to test autonomous driving systems.
The incident occurred on the evening of September 24. A PlusAI warehouse in Fremont was broken into by unknown persons, and two trailers were towed directly away from the scene. The next morning, warehouse staff discovered the trailer was missing and reported it to police.
Preliminary investigation showed that the thieves may have brought their own tractor to the scene, destroyed the trailer locks and towed the two trailers away directly. It is worth noting that the PlusAI self-driving truck tractors stored elsewhere on the campus were not stolen.
Judging from their appearance, these two trailers can easily arouse the interest of criminals. The body is not only printed with the PlusAI logo, but also has an eye-catching NVIDIA brand mark. In recent years, as the prices of AI servers, GPU accelerator cards, and data center equipment have continued to rise, such goods have become popular targets in U.S. freight theft cases.
Investigators speculated that the thieves may have mistakenly thought that the trailer contained high-value artificial intelligence hardware equipment, so they decided to attack.
However, when they opened the cargo compartment, they found that the reality was far from expectations.
What is loaded inside the two trailers is not AI chips, but sand used for research and testing, with a total weight of about 20 tons. PlusAI said that in the process of developing self-driving truck systems, the company often uses sand to simulate real freight loads in order to test the vehicle's handling performance, braking distance and operating characteristics under various complex road conditions under full load.
Since the sand itself had little resale value, the thieves apparently quickly lost interest.
Subsequently, two trailers were found abandoned on the roadside near Newark, only about 800 meters away from the PlusAI warehouse. The back door of the trailer had been opened, and someone had obviously checked the contents of the cargo, but the sand on the vehicle was still intact in the cargo compartment.
PlusAI vice president of marketing Lauren Guan said the company believes the suspect was likely misled by Nvidia's brand logo and mistakenly believed that expensive equipment was stored in the trailer.
She said that if someone sees the NVIDIA logo, it is easy to think of high-value artificial intelligence hardware, so it is not surprising to make a wrong judgment.
In fact, as the global AI infrastructure construction boom continues to heat up, related freight theft cases in the United States are also increasing. In recent years, multiple thefts involving GPUs, servers, fiber optic modules, switches and data center equipment have been exposed. Some criminal gangs even specifically target the transportation links of the AI industry chain, hoping to make profits through resale on the black market.
Just in recent months, data center equipment worth millions of dollars has been stolen in the United States, including servers, network equipment, cooling systems, and other AI infrastructure hardware that have been targeted.
In contrast, PlusAI’s experience seems quite ironic.
As a self-driving truck company founded in 2016, PlusAI has long been cooperating with NVIDIA to develop self-driving solutions. Its SuperDrive self-driving system has accumulated more than 7 million miles of real road operating data in the United States, Europe and Asia. The company is promoting the commercialization of driverless freight and is cooperating with a number of large commercial vehicle manufacturers.
The stolen vehicle is part of the relevant research and development testing work.
Fortunately, the police eventually recovered the two trailers, and the sand inside the vehicles was intact. PlusAI stated that the vehicle did not suffer major damage and the company's testing work will not be significantly affected.
Currently, the Fremont police are collecting surveillance video from the area where the incident occurred to trace the identities of those involved. So far, no suspect has been arrested.
The most surprising thing about this case is not the theft itself, but the fact that the thief originally thought he had obtained a valuable AI fortune, but in the end he only got 20 tons of worthless testing sand. This theft of "artificial intelligence wealth" eventually turned into a costly but fruitless incident.
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