TuSimple

TuSimple Holdings, Inc. is a Chinese autonomous trucking company, based in San Diego, California, with offices in Arizona, Texas, and China. It was founded in 2015 by Xiaodi Hou and Mo Chen. In December 2023, the company announced that it would be closing its U.S. business and moving to China.

History
TuSimple was founded in September 2015 by Mo Chen and Dr Xiaodi Hou, who graduated from the California Institute of Technology. The company initially operated in two facilities: one in Beijing, China and one in San Diego, California.

Partnerships
In August 2019, UPS announced its purchase of a minority share in TuSimple and that it has been performing tests on a 100-mile stretch of highway in Arizona.

In early 2020, TuSimple announced a partnership with automotive supplier ZF to assist in the mass production and commercialization of autonomous vehicles. As part of the deal, ZF aided in the development of sensors for autonomous vehicles systems. TuSimple's Chief Product Officer Chuck Price stated that the partnership is “an important milestone to bringing their autonomous vehicles to market”.

In July 2020, TuSimple and the freight truck manufacturer Navistar International Corp. formed a partnership, intending to integrate autonomous systems into their freighters. Sale of these fully self-driving trucks was targeted for 2025, but the partnership was mutually dissolved in December 2022.

In September 2020, TuSimple announced that it reached an agreement with Traton Group, a commercial truck manufacturer based in Germany, to jointly develop trucks with autonomous technology. Traton Group aimed to begin testing heavy duty autonomous vehicles in Germany and Sweden, but they did not provide a timeline for this goal.

Also in September, the company announced the launch of the autonomous freight network (AFN), with partners UPS, carrier U.S. Xpress, Penske Truck Leasing and McLane, the grocery and food service supply chain of Berkshire Hathaway.

In January 2022 at the Consumer Electronic Show, the company announced it was partnering with American chipmaker Nvidia to add Nvidia's Drive Orin system on a chip to its self-driving technology.

Research
In late 2019, a study was conducted by the University of California San Diego on the fuel consumption of TuSimple autonomous vehicles. According to the study, TuSimple trucks showed a reduction in fuel consumption of 10% to 20%, with larger reductions occurring in areas with higher amounts of traffic.

Road testing
In December 2021, TuSimple announced that it had completed the world's first robotic semi test on a public road, an 80-mile run from Tucson to Phoenix.

In early 2022, the company announced that it had completed 550 miles of autonomous operation without humans in the vehicle on a route between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. This milestone distinguishes the company from its competitors, which require the presence of human safety drivers to take over when necessary. The company stated that it is the first company to "operate fully driverless heavy-duty trucks."

On May 26, 2022, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation of an April 6, 2022 accident in which one of the company's autonomous trucks crashed into a concrete barrier while on Interstate 10 near Tucson. Company officials blamed the accident on "human error," but former employees and experts in the field of autonomous vehicles suggest that there were issues with the company's technology. The investigation was closed in March 2023 and did not result in penalties. The company issued a statement that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declined to open a separate probe.

The company also announced that it planned to expand autonomous freight services to Texas by the end of 2023.

In March 2023, it was reported that the company had completed 10 million combined testing, research, and freight delivery miles. In June 2023, TuSimple announced that it had completed a series of fully autonomous semi-truck runs on public roads in China. Also in June, the company announced it had completed self-driving truck tests in Japan, on Tōmei Expressway.

Financial health
Initial financial backers included Volkswagen, United Parcel Service, and U.S. Xpress Enterprises. In April 2021, the company raised over US$1 billion in an initial public offering, leading to a valuation of almost $8.5 billion. The company was reportedly the first autonomous trucking company to go public on the NASDAQ composite index.

In the first half of 2022, TuSimple reported $220.5 million in losses and $4.9 million in revenue.

In December 2022, TuSimple announced a restructuring to focus more sharply on commercializing its newest technologies. As a result, TuSimple dismissed around a quarter of its workforce, amounting to at least 350 employees. TuSimple representatives estimated that the downsizing would cost them between $10 and $11 million.

TuSimple's stock also reported a 75% decrease from October 2022 and a 96% drop from their 2021 initial public offering price.

In December 2023, the company announced that it would be winding down its U.S. operations and moving its business to China. With a valuation of $229 million, the company is looking for a buyer.

In January 2024, TuSimple announced it was delisting from the NASDAQ. Facing shareholder lawsuits, a US federal judge issued an order restraining TuSimple from sharing trade secrets outside of the US in order to protect shareholder asset claims. TuSimple subsequently suspended its operations in China.

Leadership changes
Cheng Lu previously served as TuSimple's CEO from September 2020 to March 2022 before he was ousted by Xiaodi Hou.

In October 2022, Hou was fired after an internal investigation related to a possible technology transfer to a Chinese company Hou started. After Xiaodi Hou's termination, TuSimple's Chief Operations Officer, Ersin Yumer, was named interim CEO.

In November 2022, in response to Hou's firing, co-founders Chen and Hou fired TuSimple's board of directors and reappointed Cheng Lu as CEO.

In March 2023, Hou resigned from TuSimple's board of directors, stating a disagreement with his planned compensation and the company's shift in focus from level 4 to level 2 autonomy. This claim was disputed by Cheng Lu, who affirmed that TuSimple is still working toward level 4 autonomy and accused Hou of poaching employees.

Technology
TuSimple uses a combination of LiDAR, radar, and HD cameras to detect vehicles and obstacles up to 1,000 meters away. Each truck consists of a computer that is connected to the TuSimple servers. Each of these servers, which are used to identify cars on the road and their speeds, contains as many as 100 A.I. models. The models receive data from the cameras’ LiDAR and radar equipment and use it to build a live 3D model of the road.

In April 2023, the company announced a proprietary central computer unit called the TuSimple Domain Controller (TDC), designed to act as an autonomous truck's central computer, managing sensor inputs, vehicle control and autonomous driving software. The TDC reportedly incorporated American technology company Nvidia's DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC).

The company also operates the Autonomous Freight Network (AFN) that links four components: TuSimple's self-driving trucks, digital mapped routes, freight terminals and a system for monitoring autonomous trucks tracking shipments in real-time.

Illicit technology transfer
In October 2022, the company's CEO, Chief Technology Officer, and co-founder, Xiaodi Hou, was fired by the company's board, which cited a "loss in trust and confidence" in Hou's judgment in connection with an alleged sharing of confidential data, blueprints, and employee information with a Chinese company, Hydron Inc. Hydron Inc., is a hydrogen truck startup founded by Mo Chen, who co-founded TuSimple with Xiaodi Hou. Hou responded to his ouster by stating that he would be "vindicated."

As of late 2022, TuSimple and its leadership were under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) on suspicions of illicit technology transfer to Hydron in China. In February 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that a member of the CFIUS panel recommended that the United States Department of Justice bring criminal charges of economic espionage against the management of TuSimple. At the time, a company spokeswoman denied being aware of any allegations of economic espionage against the company.

In January 2024, the United States Department of Commerce halted TuSimple's attempt to ship Nvidia processors to a newly-formed subsidiary in Australia.