TuSimple: Truck Autonomous Driving System

Main article: Self-driving trucks

2023: Truck launch without drivers in China

In mid-June 2023, TuSimple, which develops autonomous trucks, launched unmanned tractors on public roads. It is noteworthy that in the cabins of cars drivers for safety net were absent in principle. The company says that this is the first test of this kind in the Celestial Empire.

As TuSimple was told, unmanned trucks drove on a 65 km road. During the ride, the truck had to navigate both urban and highway conditions, as well as various weather conditions, including traffic lights, races, ramps, lane changes, emergency cars, partial lane closures, fog and crosswind. It is noteworthy that in the cabins of cars drivers for safety net were absent in principle.

TuSimple has released unmanned tractors on public roads

In TuSimple's information, the trucks passed 100% of the tracks without any outages. The autonomous system faced one so-called "minimum risk condition" due to a scenario that was not in the scope of the truck's operational design. The company will continue testing in China. For June 2023, it is unclear when TuSimple plans to begin commercial operation in this country.

The China push also suggests TuSimple is doubling down on its Asia-focused business now that the company has decided to keep it. TuSimple was considering selling its Chinese division in the wake of scrutiny from U.S. regulators. After a reorganization within TuSimple, which included several personnel changes, in May 2023, the company announced that it would retain divisions in the PRC. TuSimple has had several rounds of layoffs since the end of 2022, and most of the employees who were fired worked in the United States.

In late May 2023, TuSimple began testing its autonomous trucks in Japan, marking further investment in Asian markets.^[1]

2022: Getting Out of Control

The company developing TuSimple self-driving trucks was trying to pass off an autonomous driving system failure as a driver-engineer error. This became known on August 5, 2022. In April, an incident occurred on a expressway that could end with a truck at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour, crash into a demarcation barrier and possibly provoke a deadly one. A ROAD ACCIDENT video posted online shows two engineers in the cockpit. Suddenly, the truck at full speed makes a sharp change to the left and crashes into a bump stop that delimits oncoming traffic. Thanks to the engineer behind the wheel, it was possible to level the car.

Source: content-review.com

TuSimple said the cause of the incident was an engineer who "did not reboot the autonomous motion system," causing the autopilot to execute a left turn command that remained in memory and was intended for a maneuver performed 2.5 minutes earlier.

Blaming engineers raises many questions. The company did not explain why the team that had already been executed remained in memory, why the truck began a dangerous maneuver at such a high speed, and why numerous lidars and radars were then needed if they allowed a collision with a bump stop.

The increase in accidents involving cars with automated driving systems has led to the fact that from 2021 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began to purposefully collect data on such accidents. According to them, from July 2021 to May 2022, 130 such accidents occurred, only three of them involved unmanned trucks.

The video shows how the driver engineer is desperately trying to cope with the trucks, thanks to his reaction and efforts, the car was straightened out, which in turn prevented a serious accident on a busy highway^[2]

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