Chinese self-driving truck player TuSimple raises $95m Series D
TuSimple, a China and US-based developer of autonomous driving technology for trucks, has closed its Series D round at $95 million, achieving a pre-money valuation of $1 billion.
Chinese internet services platform Sina Corp. led the round with additional participation from Composite Capital, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund founded by a former partner at Hillhouse Capital. Composite led TuSimple’s Series C in late 2017, which also featured Sina and Zhiping Capital.
The company has now raised $178 million to date. Previous investors in the company include Nvidia GPU Ventures, a corporate VC arm of US graphics chip maker Nvidia. It provided $20 million in Series B funding in 2017 alongside Sina.
TuSimple will use the fresh capital to grow its commercial autonomous fleet, which is already active in Arizona and will soon enter Texas. It currently has 12 contracted customers and is making three to five delivery trips per day. The goal is to expand the fleet to over 50 trucks by June.
The company obtained an autonomous vehicle testing permit from the state of California in 2017 and subsequently completed level four (L4) autonomous driving tests – which means the car is fully self-driving in certain environments, but it still needs a driver in the seat – between California and Arizona. The delivery services enable it to earn revenue while validating a fully autonomous L4 system.
At present, TuSimple’s trucks drive from depot to depot without human intervention. To support L4 driving on complex highway and local streets, it has developed a camera-based solution that allows trucks to see 1,000 meters down the road. The company claims this vision range is farther and delivers better visibility than any other autonomous driving system currently in operation.
The Series D round will also go towards TuSimple’s joint programs with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and other technology developers. Full commercial production and operation of self-driving trucks is dependent on autonomous software being integrated with powertrain, braking and steering systems.
"Autonomous driving is one of the most complex artificial intelligence systems humans have ever built. After three years of intense focus to reach our technical goals, we have moved beyond research into the serious work of building a commercial solution," said Xiaodi Hou, founder, president and CTO at TuSimple.
Hou established the company in 2015 after completing his doctorate in computation and neural systems at California Institute of Technology. It is headquartered in Arizona and has research centers in San Diego and Beijing. In 2017, TuSimple became the first company to conduct a successful L4 autonomous truck demonstration in China.
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