TuSimple Paints Optimistic Profit Projections For 2024 Driverless Truck Launch: Bloomberg

San Diego’s self-driving semi-truck firm TuSimple Holdings Inc TSP CEO Cheng Lu has projected impressive profits following the debut of its 2024 driverless 18-wheelers in partnership with Navistar International Corp NAV and Volkswagen AG’s VWAGY trucking unit Traton SE TRATF, Bloomberg reports.
Driverless trucks will enable higher productive hours and reduce hauling costs by 50%, stated Lu. He targeted higher profitability through a volume scaleup.
The company with significant Chinese operations raised $1.35 billion in a public offering on Thursday after losing over $300 million in the last three years.
TuSimple reported a 2020 revenue of $1.8 million with a $178 million loss. It has failed to deliver promised monthly revenue of $1 million in the second half of 2019.
TuSimple planned to organize a one-time demonstration of a driverless truck for more than 100 miles, including at night, later this year.
TuSimple was working towards the resolution of reliability and redundancy issues.
The online shopping boom coupled with a shortage of truck drivers played a crucial role in attracting driverless delivery investment, including Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL Waymo and Amazon.com Inc AMZN-backed Aurora Innovation Inc.
Autonomous-driving start-up Argo AI, a partner to Ford Motor Co F and Volkswagen, is contemplating a 2021 listing. Driverless truck start-up Plus is aiming to go public via a special purpose acquisition (SPAC) merger.
Price action: TSP shares traded lower by 2.50% at $39 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.