Humans are one step closer to fully autonomous driving.
On Wednesday, local time, the autonomous driving technology company Tusumen Future (TuSimple) officially announced that it successfully completed the world's first L4 level fully autonomous driving test of a semi-heavy truck on a public road, and released a 1-hour and 20-minute video of the whole process, there was no driver in the car, and there was no human intervention during the whole process.
In overnight trading in U.S. stocks on Wednesday, Tucson Futures opened nearly 12 percent higher, but went all the way lower before closing sharply down 9 percent at $32.
On the evening of December 22, a semi-heavy truck loaded with Tucson's Future Autonomous Driving System (ADS) departed from Tucson, Arizona, and traveled more than 80 miles (about 130 kilometers) through the city's roads and highways, successfully arriving at a distribution center in Phoenix.
The test was closely coordinated by local law enforcement, with observation vehicles leading the way 5 miles ahead and police half a mile behind the vehicle.
The trip was operated entirely by Tucson's future autonomous driving system, with no drivers and no remote human intervention. The system successfully completed tasks such as identifying traffic lights, getting on and off ramps, identifying vehicles in emergency lanes, and changing lanes on highways.
(Screenshot of the test video)
The test not only means that the world's first heavy-duty semi-trailer truck will complete full self-driving on public roads, but also means that Tucson's future "Driver Out" project has reached a significant milestone after 1 and a half years of hard work. The project aims to develop L4-level autonomous trucks with fault tolerance, reliability, and consistency to ensure trucks can safely drive on public roads without drivers.
It is worth mentioning that Tucson Future pointed out that this test is the beginning of the "driver exit" plan, and the "driver exit" plan is only the first important stage of the company's Tusson Future Automated Freight Network (TuSimple AFN).
Lu Cheng, future CEO of Tucson, spoke highly of the test, saying that the company's efforts to focus on real-world public road testing this year have paid off, demonstrating the advanced capabilities and commercial maturity of the company's autonomous driving system, and strengthening Tucson's future leadership in the field of truck autonomous driving.
Founded in 2015 in San Diego, USA, Tucson Future is a company focused on developing commercialized fully autonomous driving technology (L4 level) for long-haul heavy-duty trucks, with operations in several U.S. states, as well as in Europe and China.