TuSimple, a global autonomous driving technology company, announced a restructuring plan designed to set the Company on the course to long-term success as a leader in the autonomous trucking industry.
The announced restructuring plan involves a 25 percent reduction of TuSimple’s total workforce. 80 percent of the remaining staff are in research and development, and many of these are engineers critical to hardware and software resilience, reliability, safety, and information security. TuSimple plans to actively work with key shipping partners to operationalize its autonomous technology, and in an effort to help ensure capital efficiency, the company also plans to scale back freight expansion, including unprofitable freight lanes and respective trucking operations. Trucking operations along those lanes utilize previous generation autonomous software that provides limited value to the Company’s on-going technology development. The majority of the restructuring is in the Company’s U.S. operations as the Company continues its plan to explore strategic alternatives for its Asia business, including a divestiture.
Returning to lead TuSimple one month ago, CEO Cheng Lu made the commitment to set the Company on the path towards stability and long-term success. In the past 30 days, the Company has named three independent directors to the board, reconstituted its board committees, including an independent audit committee in compliance with Nasdaq requirements, and stabilized the management team, including naming its interim CFO, Eric Tapia, as permanent CFO. In addition, Mike Mosier, one of the new independent board members, was named as TuSimple’s Security Director – a position which required review and a notice of non-objection from CFIUS.
“I returned to TuSimple as CEO to help address a number of challenges and set the Company up for long-term success. 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.” – Cheng Lu, TuSimple President and CEO.
