Chinese autonomous vehicle startup TuSimple announced on Tuesday that the United States Postal Service (USPS) will adopt its self-driving trucks to transport mail. This contract is the first of its kind for the USPS.
It is unclear how many of TuSimples’s vehicles will serve the postal service, though they will run for 22 hours a day on a 1,600-kilometer route connecting Arizona and Texas. An engineer and a safety officer will be on board each truck that is in operation.
Since August last year, TuSimple has been delivering goods to 13 clients with its autonomous trucks three to five times a day, with each vehicle generating several thousand dollars in revenue per week. In February, the company’s founder and CEO, Chen Ou, said TuSimple has 30 self-driving trucks serving clients in the United States and China.
At home, TuSimple uses its trucks to transport goods between the Yangshan port and the Luchaogang cargo railway station in Shanghai.
TuSimple closed its Series D round in February and raised USD 95 million, bringing the company’s valuation to USD 1 billion. The company said it will use these proceeds to expand its fleet to 50 trucks by June this year.
Contact the writer at jingli@kr-asia.com
