Exclusive | This driverless tech start-up aims to replace 15 million truckers in the US and China
- Artificial intelligence firm TuSimple looks to expand its autonomous truck fleet to 500 by next year
- TuSimple is working on a new financing round after raising a total of US$83 million since it was founded in 2015
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up TuSimple has deployed autonomous trucks on commercial runs between Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada, as the company prepares to expand its operations in the world’s two largest economies by next year.
That trial programme in the US, where its two trucks transport consumer goods at speeds of up to 104.6 kilometres per hour (65mph) on their routes, is generating about US$6,600 a week in revenue and given TuSimple a toehold in the vast US freight market, said Chen Mo, the company’s co-founder and chief executive.
“Scaling up our operations boils down to two factors – capital and talent,” Chen said in an interview at TuSimple’s headquarters in Beijing. The company has its US headquarters in San Diego, California.
Chen said TuSimple, which has more than 450 employees in China and the US, plans to gradually expand its autonomous truck fleet to a total of 500 units between the two markets, which would enable it to generate about 100 million yuan (US$14.4 million) in revenue from next year.
The company, which has generated US$83 million in funding since it was founded in 2015, is now working on a new round of financing, the amount of which it has not disclosed. Chen said the company was currently burning about US$4 million a month in capital in the US and China.