Navistar and TuSimple partner to bring autonomous trucks to market

Navistar International Corporation and TuSimple, a global self-driving technology company, announced that the two entities have entered into a strategic partnership to co-develop SAE Level 4 self-driving trucks targeted for production by 2024.

The strategic partnership is the result of a successful technical relationship between the companies for more than two years. In addition, Navistar has taken a minority stake in TuSimple.

“Autonomous technology is entering our industry and will have a profound impact on our customers' businesses,” said Persio Lisboa, President and CEO, Navistar. “Navistar's strategic partnership with TuSimple positions us to be a leader in developing solutions for our customers by leveraging our organisations' collective expertise to integrate our vehicle design and systems integration capabilities with TuSimple's innovative autonomous technology. This announcement marks a significant milestone in our development journey with TuSimple and we look forward to furthering our relationship in the months to come.”

Navistar brings 113 years of experience in developing commercial vehicles and bringing them to the market under the International and IC Bus brands. The program between TuSimple and Navistar will ensure a fully integrated engineering solution that will be ready for mass-production using Navistar's vehicle manufacturing capabilities. Customers will be able to purchase the fully autonomous trucks through Navistar's traditional sales channels in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“TuSimple and Navistar began joint development of pre-production units in 2018 and now we are kicking-off a full go-to-market production programme,” said Cheng Lu, President, TuSimple. “We are honored to be partnered with Navistar. “The investment in TuSimple and the partnership with Navistar marks an important milestone for our company. With the combined expertise of Navistar and TuSimple, we have a clear path to commercialize self-driving Class 8 trucks at scale.”

This partnership propels TuSimple's aims to transform the $800 billion US trucking industry by enhancing safety, increasing efficiency and significantly reducing operating costs. Last December, TuSimple announced results of a study conducted at the University of California San Diego that show the company's autonomous driving technology reduced fuel consumption in heavy-duty trucks by 10% when compared to traditional operations.

The company operates a fleet of 40 self-driving trucks in the U.S., shipping freight autonomously for companies such as UPS and McLane Company between Arizona and Texas. TuSimple plans to demonstrate completely driverless operations in 2021.