What is TuSimple? TuSimple Review, Features

TuSimple is a driverless truck brand that was founded with the goal of empowering the global logistics and transportation industry with L4 level (SAE standard) driverless truck technology.

About TuSimple

In 2015, the main body of the TuSimple brand was co-founded by CEO Chen Mo, CTO Hou Xiaodi, and Chief Architect Hao Jianan. Its main business is to provide driverless truck freight services to the world. The TuSimple brand was originally founded in Beijing, China (Beijing TuSimple Technology Co., Ltd.) and San Diego, California, USA, and then expanded to Shanghai, Hebei, China and Tucson, Arizona, USA, and established R&D and application centers in the above five regions.

TuSimple's core technology

TuSimple's L4 autonomous truck uses cameras as the main sensor, integrates other sensors such as lidar and millimeter-wave radar, and cooperates with self-developed core algorithms to achieve core functions of autonomous driving such as environmental perception, positioning navigation, and decision-making control. It can be applied to highway freight, container terminal transportation in ports, and similar scenarios.

TuSimple’s Development History

● Founded in September 2015, it received RMB 50 million in Series A investment from Sina in January 2016. Co-founders include Chen Mo (CEO), Hou Xiaodi (CTO), and Hao Jianan (Chief Architect).

● In December 2016, we formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the People's Government of Caofeidian District, Tangshan City, to jointly build the Caofeidian autonomous driving truck test base, an automated logistics and transportation commercial operation base, an automated logistics demonstration zone and an autonomous driving truck industry chain cluster.

● In April 2017, it received US$23 million in Series B investment from Sina, NVIDIA, and Zhiping Capital.

● In November 2017, it received US$55 million in Series C financing led by Compound Capital.

● In December 2018, it received US$95 million in Series D financing led by Sina Capital.

● In March 2019, the latest unmanned driving night perception system was released to realize all-weather unmanned driving operations.

● In April 2019, it was selected as one of “Shanghai’s first batch of artificial intelligence pilot application scenarios” and participated in the Yangshan Port autonomous driving container truck demonstration project.

● In September 2019, it received US$120 million in financing from UPS, CDH Capital and other institutions, and the total amount of financing in its D round reached US$215 million.

● In December 2019, China’s first L4 unmanned driving platoon test on highways was completed.

● In March 2020, the unmanned transportation service cooperation with UPS increased to 20 times per week, and a new transportation route from Phoenix, Arizona to El Paso, Texas was opened.

● In March 2020, we established a comprehensive partnership with automotive supplier ZF to jointly develop mass-produced driverless truck systems.

● In July 2020, the world’s first autonomous freight network (AFN) was launched in the United States.

● In July 2020, it received investment from the American truck manufacturer Navistar. The two parties will cooperate to mass-produce driverless trucks, and plan to achieve the goal of mass production of driverless trucks within 4 years.

● On April 15, 2021, it was listed on the Nasdaq in the United States, becoming the world's first listed driverless company.

● On December 29, 2021, TuSimple, an autonomous driving technology company, officially announced that it had successfully completed the world's first fully autonomous driving test.

● In January 2022, we deepened our strategic cooperation with NVIDIA to develop an autonomous driving domain controller based on the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin chip.

● On November 10, 2022, Eastern Time, TuSimple announced the appointment of former CEO Lu Cheng as CEO and president, and the company’s co-founder Chen Mo as the company’s chairman, and terminated Hou Xiaodi’s positions as CEO, president, and CTO, and removed him from his position as chairman of the board.

● On December 5, 2022, TuSimple and truck manufacturer Navistar issued a joint statement announcing the end of the deal to jointly develop autonomous trucks.

● On March 28, 2023, according to the official news of TuSimple, TuSimple today officially released the domain controller product designed and developed based on NVIDIA DRIVE Orin SoC chip, which is expected to start mass production at the end of 2023.