Navistar International Corp. on Wednesday announced it has taken a minority stake in autonomous truck retrofitter TuSimple, part of an investment by Navistar into TuSimple’s self-driving technology and after two years of an ongoing technical relationship between the two companies.
Navistar says the goal is for the companies to co-develop a Level 4 autonomous truck to enter production by 2024.
“Autonomous technology is entering our industry and will have a profound impact on our customers’ businesses,” said Persio Lisboa, president and CEO of Navistar. “Navistar’s strategic partnership with TuSimple positions us to be a leader in developing solutions for our customers by leveraging our organizations’ collective expertise to integrate our vehicle design and systems integration capabilities with TuSimple’s innovative autonomous technology.”
TuSimple operates a fleet of 40 trucks in the U.S., and just last month it announced a partnership with major fleets like UPS and U.S. Xpress to build out a nationwide network of regular autonomous hauls. TuSimple says it plans on demonstrating a completely driverless rig by 2021.
