Autonomous truck developer TuSimple, once viewed as a leader in the expanding self-driving industry, announced Wednesday it will lay off 25% of its staff as part of a restructuring plan following a series of setbacks that includes a truck crash and a federal investigation. Roughly 350 employees will lose their jobs.
TuSimple President and CEO Cheng Lu, who rejoined the company last month to replace fired CEO Xiaodi Hou, blamed the layoffs on a "difficult" economy.
"I returned to TuSimple as CEO to help address a number of challenges and set the company up for long-term success,” Lu said. “This required evaluating our entire workforce and making tough decisions. It's no secret that the current economic environment is difficult. We must be prudent with our capital and operate as efficiently as possible. While I deeply regret the impact this has on those affected, I believe it is a necessary step as TuSimple continues down our path to commercialization. This is part of our overall strategy to prioritize investments that bring the most value to shareholders, and position TuSimple as a customer-focused, product-driven organization."
CCJ reached out to the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, whose members include Aurora, Embark, Ford, TuSimple and Waymo, for comment on TuSimple's financial woes and if they might signal troubling times ahead for the nascent, cutting-edge autonomous truck industry in 2023.
“AVs continue to make steady progress in delivering the technology’s safety, mobility and efficiency benefits," said AVIA executive director Jeff Farah. "Like all sectors of the economy, there have been and will continue to be changes as the country faces economic headwinds and as the AV industry evolves. What has not changed is the industry’s commitment to ensuring AVs benefit the public.”
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TuSimple reports that its layoff leaves 80% percent of its remaining staff in research and development, which includes engineers critical to hardware and software resilience, reliability, safety and information security. Most of the company's restructuring will impact its U.S. operations and not its business interests in Asia. TuSimple's stock value has dropped 77% over the past six months.
