Navistar and TuSimple are ending an agreement to mass produce autonomous trucks.
The companies announced Monday that while they’re ending their development agreement, it “does not preclude the companies from working together in the future,” according to a joint statement. The pair formalized an agreement in 2020 to create autonomous tractors in North America by 2024.
“We have proven our technology works, and I’m committed to addressing the concerns of stakeholders,” TuSimple CEO Cheng Lu said in the release. “I firmly believe in this company and its ability to improve the safety and efficiency of the trucking industry through world-class autonomous driving technology.”
The initial agreement included plans to sell fully autonomous trucks through Navistar in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Even before the July 2020 formal partnership was announced, the companies had been working together for approximately two years, according to a TuSimple securities filing in December 2020.
TuSimple’s former interim CEO Ersin Yumer, who has since been replaced by Cheng Lu, said on a Nov. 1 earnings call that there were no plans to change the company’s 2023 commercialization strategy.
The severed agreement doesn’t mean Navistar has given up on an autonomous driving strategy, Srinivas Gowda, Navistar’s vice president of autonomous vehicles, said in a statement.
“Navistar believes autonomous driving technologies will be a key component of a future transportation and logistics system,” Gowda said, “and is committed to the development of a safe and efficient autonomous driving solution.”
