UPS buys stake in TuSimple, testing self-driving trucks in Arizona
Summary
But UPS sees the investment as a way to apply autonomous driving features like lane departure technology, advanced braking systems or sensor technology in its own fleet in the short term, said Todd Lewis, managing partner at UPS Ventures. In February TuSimple said it had raised $95 million in a funding round led by Sina, which valued the startup at $1 billion. Silicon Valley firms to traditional carmakers are racing to put fully commercial self-driving vehicles on the road, while efforts by robotaxis companies such as General Motors Co (GM.N) unit Cruise and Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) have stumbled because it is very difficult and expensive to develop self-driving cars capable of anticipating and responding to humans in urban areas. Self-driving trucks run consistently on predictable highway routes - in UPS’ case carrying large numbers of revenue-generating packages or goods - around the clock, including in the early hours of the morning when driving conditions are ideal. “The economics for a robotaxi are just not as strong as for a truck,” TuSimple Chief Financial Officer Cheng Lu told Reuters.
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