Autonomous vehicles are hard nut to crack.
From the South China Morning Post, December 6:
- TuSimple plans to cut 150 employees, or 75 per cent of its remaining workforce in the United States, as part of a corporate restructuring
- The company’s remaining US employees will wind down its operations in the country, as the tech firm turns its focus to the Asia-Pacific
Autonomous trucking company TuSimple Holdings is set to wind down its operations in the United States amid plans to cut 75 per cent of its remaining workforce in the country, according to the Nasdaq-listed firm’s latest filing.TuSimple’s board of directors approved a new round lay-offs that will affect around 150 employees, or 19 per cent of its global workforce, as part of its restructuring initiative, the company said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.
The remaining US employees will focus on “winding down the company’s US operations, including through sales of US assets, and assisting with the company’s strategic shift to the Asia-Pacific region”.
TuSimple’s exit from the US could mark the end of major autonomous truck development programmes in the country, following Alphabet unit Waymo’s decision in July to slow down work in that field under its Via subsidiary. In May, Embark Technology – an early proponent of self-driving truck software development in the US – delisted from the Nasdaq and went private via a merger after running out of capital to pursue commercial production.
TuSimple’s latest job cuts will leave it with around 700 full-time employees worldwide, according to the company’s filing. That number would be down from around 1,400 last December.
The company, once considered a star in the global autonomous driving sector and a leader in US self-driving truck development, has focused on level 4 autonomy – in which the vehicle can handle most driving situations independently, but a human can still request control of the cockpit....
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