The difficulty of developing self-driving vehicle capabilities can’t be underestimated. . .

By Gary S. Vasilash

Something you may have missed over the holidays. . .

In 2015 a company was founded in San Diego with the objective of developing autonomous technology for commercial trucking applications.

It was named “TuSimple.”

Nothing if not optimistic.

Certainly there is something to be said for focusing on trucking as there are a number of factors that somewhat simplify things.

For one thing, there are fewer Class 8 trucks produced than there are passenger vehicles. In 2023 (’24 numbers are yet to be established) there were some 310,000 Class 8 trucks produced in the U.S. There were some 1.7 million passenger vehicles. So fewer means a greater ability to concentrate one’s efforts.

For another, whereas passenger vehicles go here, there and everywhere, the big rigs generally have a point A to point B routing, often on interstates. Yes, there is the need to get on and off the interstates, but arguably that could be handled by a human driver, who could then have the autonomous driver take over.

And what’s more, there is undoubtedly a better economic argument to be made for autonomous vehicles in commercial applications than there is for hopping in one’s vehicle to make a Target run.

TuSimple was, like other companies in that space, on something of a roll, with things like UPS buying a minority share in the company and partnerships with ZF and Navistar.

TuSimple had a facility in China and worked with truck companies there.

In 2021 TuSimple had an IPO that valued the company at some $8.5 billion.

But in December 2023 it announced it was moving its main operations to China.

And in December 2024, on the 19^th, Reuters reported this:

“TuSimple Holdings said on Thursday it would rebrand as CreateAI and pivot from autonomous trucking to AI gaming technology.”

Enough said.