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TuSimple addresses self-driving truck crash during Q2 earnings call – TechCrunch


Self-driving trucking company TuSimple used its second-quarter earnings call to address an accident in April in which one of the company’s self-driving trucks unexpectedly plowed across a highway. I-10 in Tuscon, crashed into a concrete barricade.

The accident was first brought to light through a Videos on YouTube shows footage of the crash along with a letter from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Administration (FMCSA), dated May 26, warning TuSimple of a “safety compliance investigation.” The accident was later reported by The Wall Street Journal.

“There was an error when a test driver and safety engineer tried to re-enter autonomous driving mode before the system computer was ready,” said Xiaodi Hou, co-founder and CEO of TuSimple. do like that. , during Tuesday’s earnings call. “No one was hurt. And the only evidence of the accident was a few scratches and some minor damage on our truck.”

Hou notes that over the past seven years, TuSimple has accumulated 8.1 million miles of test tracks with “exactly one incident.” Hou said: “When the incident happened on April 6, TuSimple had the entire fleet warmed up and started an independent investigation. After determining the cause of the error, the company then upgraded all of its systems with a human-machine interface overhaul to ensure the same problem never occurred again, the director said. operating continues.

That internal report, reviewed by the WSJ, revealed that the truck had suddenly veered to the left due to an outdated command, 2.5 minutes away and should have been removed from the system but was not.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University told the WSJ that conventional safeguards, if they were in place, would have prevented a crash. For example, the truck shouldn’t react to an old command even a few hundredths of a second, let alone more than two minutes. The system also won’t be able to make such drastic turns while traveling at 65 mph, and safe drivers won’t be able to use the self-driving system that isn’t working properly either.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has joined the FMCSA investigation into the TuSimple highway crash.

Hou said that the two agencies have yet to find any anomalies in their investigation or make any safety recommendations to TuSimple, but the investigation is not yet complete.

During the earnings call, TuSimple repeated its plan to commercialize driver shuttle operations, in which there are no human-safe operators on board the vehicle. Company Completed an 80-mile driving demonstration for the first time in Arizona in Decemberand have completed several more runs since then.

TuSimple says the crash won’t affect their starting plans driving operations for Union Pacific Railroad, but it’s currently unclear if the company is on track for that. TuSimple plans to launch a fully automated freight service for Union Pacific this spring and expand the commercial scale through the end of 2023, but Hou said the company has encountered a full shutdown before distribution center at the destination, which delayed the run by “a few weeks”. He also reiterated that the company’s return date in Texas is 2023, but did not specify whether that will be an initial test operation or a full commercial operation. TuSimple did not respond promptly to requests for clarification.

TuSimple’s Q2 financial report

TuSimple’s total revenue was $2.6 million in the second quarter, up 73% year over year and 13% respectively. Wall Street analysts expect TuSimple’s revenue reached $4.06 million; Furthermore, they expect the company to beat those estimates.

The company attributes its growth, for example, to increased utilization of existing assets and year-over-year increases in prices.

TuSimple’s net loss was $108.6 million, compared with $116.5 million in the same quarter last year. The company appears to have reduced its total operating expenses, reaching $107.5 million this quarter from $119.4 million last year. However, R&D spending increased 13% year-on-year at $85.5 million. TuSimple said the largest portion of R&D costs of $60.8 million was related to hiring, including stock-based compensation costs of $22.4 million. That shows, sales revenue, general spending and administrative spending are significantly lower than last year.

To prepare for its driverless operations and expand its self-driving freight network, TuSimple has invested a total of $3.8 million in asset and equipment purchases. The company ended the quarter with $1.16 billion in cash.

Guide update all year

TuSimple’s updated guidance on 2022 revenue is unchanged at $9 million to $11 million. All in all, the company intends to spend less, and therefore lose less money this year. TuSimple’s adjusted EBITDA loss for this year is expected to be between $360 million and $380 million, compared with a previous projection of $400 million to $420 million.

Additionally, TuSimple will spend less on stock-based compensation – due to the hiring slowdown – as well as on asset and equipment purchases. The company hopes to end the year with $950 million in cash versus a previous plan of $900 million.

Executive change

Hou mentioned some of the key leadership changes announced in June, including the chief financial officer. Patrick Dillon leaves the companyTemporarily replaced by Eric Tapia, global controller and lead accountant at TuSimple.

In addition, Dr. Ersin Yumer, formerly head of TuSimple’s autonomous freight network, was promoted to operations EVP, and Dr. Lei Wang was promoted to technology EVP. Both are leveraged to support TuSimple’s outboard operations.

Remarkable

It’s worth noting that TuSimple won’t be questioning the company’s planned plans to sell off its China operations, which was mentioned during its first-quarter earnings call.

At that time, TuSimple tells TechCrunch The company’s share price today does not reflect the value of its autonomous freight business in China, so it would be a good idea to separate APAC’s operations. A survey through the company’s 10-Q revealed TuSimple is more likely looking to sell its operations in China because it is too expensive to maintain, due to the National Security Agreement that The company agreed as part of a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Tapia, interim chief financial officer of TuSimple, also shared that the company is in the process of upgrading most of its older trucks to the latest AV hardware technology, a process that will continue through 2023 and will include the addition of upgraded sensors to the vehicle.

“While we plan to introduce a number of new trucks to our fleet, the ability to add a significant number of trucks to our fleet is difficult, given the truck buying challenges,” said Tapia. new or even slightly used,” says Tapia. “Finally, we plan to continue investing in the addition of terminals for [autonomous freight network], mainly around the Texas triangle. Our intention is to do this as gently, cooperatively as possible. ”

In 2020, TuSimple cooperates with Navistar to build fully autonomous trucks and had previously set a deadline to start production in 2024 and offer to certain customers, like DHLin 2025. Hou and Tapia dodged an analyst’s repeated attempts to get clarity on this timeline.



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