Out of all the beaten-down public companies in the autonomous driving space, Embark Technology, stands out as a conspicuously terrible stock market performer.

The San Francisco-headquartered company, which develops autonomous driving technology for the trucking industry, has presided over a roughly 98% share price decline since going public a year ago. In the process, it’s wiped out close to $5 billion in market capitalization.

Today, Embark and a few others that carried out SPAC mergers are in that weird category of companies trading below the value of cash reserves. In Embark’s case, the company’s recent market capitalization of $110 million is actually quite a bit lower than the $191 million cash it had at the end of Q3. In other words, investors seem to think it’s worth less than nothing.

Rather, a mix of factors seem to have contributed to its fall, including apparent initial overvaluation, a sectorwide downturn and a critical report from a prolific short-seller. Collectively, those factors have contributed to erasing billions in valuation from a company that once secured backing from the most famous names in venture.

A January report from short-seller publication The Bear Cave titled “Problems At Embark Technology” didn’t help matters, contending that “current valuation appears to be based on puffery rather than actual substance.” It warned that the company “holds no patents, has only a dozen or so test trucks, and may be more bark than bite.”

Shareholder class-action lawsuits followed, including charges that Embark had overstated its operational and technological capabilities. 

The contrast between Embark’s public statements, which are optimistic and ambitious, and its public market performance, which shows little investor confidence, is certainly a sharp one.