It is a fact that autonomous driving will usher in stricter supervision this year, but with rules and regulations, it is conducive to the exchange and application of new technologies. Humanity is passing through a period of fear for autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, which means that norms are working.
Wen | Intelligent Driving Network Huang Huadan
2021 is the highlight of Tucson's future, first becoming the first stock of the autonomous driving IPO, and then although the stock price fluctuates, at the end of last year, Tucson's future driverless truck achieved the world's first full unmanned road test, and its identity as a top student in the autonomous driving industry is well-deserved.
However, a recent agreement between Tucson and the US government has aroused widespread concern and heated discussion among domestic autonomous driving companies.
On February 22, US time, financial media Bloomberg reported that Tucson will reach an agreement with the US government in the future to solve the security problems surrounding its self-driving truck business and the company's relationship with China, in which two Sina directors were required to withdraw from the board after their term of office.
▲Tucson's stock price trend in the next five days
Given that a large number of Chinese self-driving companies generally adopt the model of layout in both China and the United States and even in many parts of the world, Tucson's future agreement with the US government seems to mean that this model is coming to an end.
Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, the European Union is proposing legislation to force European companies to share more data among themselves, with the aim of weakening what officials say is the control of some commercial and industrial data by what officials say is a handful of big tech companies, the EU's Data Act, which has attracted widespread attention.
In the bill, which has not yet been upgraded to law, new rules are advocated to help small companies keep up with the pace of larger companies in a race to profit from the vast amount of non-personal data generated by connected products such as smart appliances to cars. This issue is becoming increasingly important as more and more devices generate data for control and monitoring, such as data for smart homes and factories. With the spread of 5G technology, the amount of such data will explode.
The report quoted some large technology companies as complaining:
The bill discriminates against them and would actually force many companies operating in Europe to store more data in Europe, using European service providers rather than sending data overseas or using services from U.S. companies.
The U.S. government's future agreement with Tucson and the EU's Data Act seem to point to a pale future: in the field of smart driving, a system is no longer possible in the world.
Last week, the Volkswagen Group, which attracted widespread attention, intended to acquire Huawei's autonomous driving business, and the domestic media "Interface" quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying that the two sides were indeed in negotiations. Roughly speaking, the two sides form a joint venture, which is funded and controlled by Volkswagen, while Huawei provides technology and becomes Volkswagen's tier1 (Tier 1 supplier). Su Zhen, president of Huawei's intelligent driving product line, who left in January this year, will join the joint venture as product leader. (More reports: "Behind the rumors of Volkswagen's acquisition of Huawei's self-driving unit: the world's auto giants' fear of dividing autonomous driving between east and west")
A series of similar related events in the same field have indeed cast a shadow over autonomous driving that is in the development period.
By consulting relevant US agencies and relevant media reports, the intelligent driving jun intends to review Tucson's future multi-round communication and consultation with the US government in the past year to present a comprehensive picture, this incident is not so much a cut of trust between China and the United States in the field of autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, but rather that the world's major powers are groping to establish their own legal models.
This collision also has positive implications.
First of all, by reviewing the relevant documents of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Tucson Future submitted a Form 8-K to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on February 18, showing that on the same day (February 18), Tucson Future signed a national security agreement with the US government.
According to the agreement:
1. Both Charles Chao and Bonnie Yi Zhang have agreed not to stand for election after the expiration of their current board terms; Sun Dream Inc has agreed not to nominate alternative candidates or increase their existing stake in the Company. Cao Guowei and Zhang Yi are the chairman and CEO of Sina and the chief financial officer of Sina respectively. (Editor's note: Sina's Sun Dream Inc is a future investor in Tucson)
2. The Company agrees to restrict access to certain data and to adopt a technical control program. According to Jim Mullen, Tucson's future chief administrative officer and legal officer, the measures include restricting the company's China division from accessing some information, including source code and algorithms for its self-driving truck business.
3. The Company will also appoint a Safety Officer and Director of Safety, establish a Government Safety Committee under the Board of Directors of the Company, chaired by the Director of Safety, and meet regularly with and report to CFIUS regulators.
Form 8-K is a form that a public company needs to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when a material event occurs internally or externally that may affect investors' decisions.
Meanwhile, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) concluded last year's disclosure of Tusimple (Cayman) Limited's (now known as TuSimpleHoldings Inc.) U.S. operations that acquired TuSimple LLC in 2017 and determined that there were no unresolved national security concerns.
Some media interpret it as a big stick waved by the US government on China's autonomous driving.
According to foreign media FreightWaves, Lu Cheng, future CEO of Tucson, said in an interview: "I think this is basically a health certificate issued by the US government." ”
▲ Lu Cheng, future CEO of Tucson
From the perspective of the Chinese media, the main reason for the future national security agreement between the US government and Tucson is to protect the technology in the United States from flowing to China.
"Countries all over the world want to keep key technologies at home," Mr. Lu said, "and that's no different from semiconductors or other applications in artificial intelligence." ”
With the investigation concluded, Tucson will focus on commercializing the modified fully unmanned Class 8 Navistar Internal LT truck in the future.
This is the same truck that was tested on the road late last year, and soon Tucson will be testing it fully driverless in Texas in the future.
The exchange of a security agreement for the end of the investigation would undoubtedly end a major event of uncertainty for Tucson's future, especially for a public company.
So, what exactly is going on with the investigation mentioned here?
There is also a corresponding Form 8-K for this survey.
The report was submitted on August 5, 2021.
After we sorted out the events submitted in the form at that time about the investigation, the course of events went something like this:
On March 1, 2021, CFIUS requested Tucson Future to issue written notice regarding Sina's Sun Dream Inc's purchase of the Company's redeemable preferred shares in 2017. Subsequently, Tucson Future drafted a notice with Sina, which CFIUS accepted and reviewed the incident.
On April 15, 2021, Tucson Future was listed on the NASDAQ in the United States, becoming the world's first autonomous driving stock.
Subsequently, CFIUS informed the company that the transaction it was reviewing was Tusimple (Cayman) Limited's acquisition of TuSimple LLC's U.S. business in 2017, rather than a Sina investment.
Tusimple (Cayman) Limited is an exempt company registered in the Cayman Islands and later incorporated under Delaware law.
TuSimple LLC is a California single-member limited liability company established in late 2015 by Dr. Xiaodi Hou, co-founder of Tucson Future. In 2017, the tangible assets accumulated by TuSimple LLC were transferred to TuSimple, Inc., a newly formed subsidiary of TuSimple (Cayman) Limited, after which TuSimple LLC was dissolved.
By February 18, the investigation was finally over.
On Form 8-K dated Aug. 5, Tucson Future emphasizes:
At the time of the 2017 transaction, the majority of Tusimple (Cayman) Limited's shares were held by Dr. Hou Xiaodi, Chen Mo and Sun Dream Inc. Dr. Hou and Mr. Chen are both members of our Board of Directors. Dr. Hou is a U.S. citizen. Mr. Chen is a Canadian citizen and currently holds approximately 5.8% of the voting rights of the Company, Sun Dream Inc., which is ultimately controlled by a U.S. citizen. All current members of the Company's Board of Directors and its entire senior management team are U.S. or Canadian citizens. ”
Compared with the national security agreement signed by Tucson and the US government in the future, it is very obvious.
When two of Sina's top executives leave the board, Tucson's future board will return to a state where all of them are U.S. and Canadian.
This, combined with Tucson's future agreement to restrict its Chinese companies from accessing some of the algorithms and data, and the establishment of a security committee to report regularly to CFIUS, ultimately bought a sense of security for the U.S. government.
▲ Jim Mullen
In an interview with the media, Jim Mullen said: "We fully understand the sensitivity of AI, and its relationship to the geopolitical atmosphere, and we will do our best to comply with the agreement." ”
This is undoubtedly a major blow to companies that are carrying out autonomous driving business in both China and the United States.
But as Lu Cheng said, countries want to keep key technologies at home.
In particular, the autonomous driving business is not only related to cutting-edge technology, but also due to the large number of high-definition cameras and lidar to collect a large amount of road data information, all of which involve the data security problems of various countries, which has increased sensitivity.
This is indeed related to the public's desire to acquire Huawei's autonomous driving division, which was making a lot of noise in the past few days.
At that time, the German manager magazine quoted an employee of Cariad, a subsidiary of Volkswagen' software company, as saying:
"We need systems that are different from those in the U.S. and Europe, otherwise, the risk of the bloc getting bogged down in a trade dispute between China and the U.S. government is too great — and China may not let vehicles into its market."
In fact, the United States is already in the process of not allowing its data to flow into China.
But this is actually beyond reproach, we need to worry that when countries try to keep technology within their own scope, especially in the early stages of autonomous driving, it may lead to a split in standards and applications.
If the autonomous driving technology in the Eastern and Western markets is split into multiple systems, it will undoubtedly increase the research and development costs of autonomous driving startups.
But we should also see the fact that at present, both China, the EU and the United States have basically established a similar principle, that is, the principle of no export for data local management.
In fact, this principle has long been practiced in the fields of mobile Internet, mobile phones, and smart cars.
Technology companies represented by Apple and Tesla have completed the principle that data servers are set up in China and data is not exported.
In fact, the establishment of this principle is a guarantee for the global sales of intelligent machines such as cars and unmanned vehicles with autonomous driving functions, and it can be said that it provides solutions for countries to establish their own safety issues.
So it is not so much that the United States has raised the stick to China's autonomous driving, but rather that the world's major economies have basically established a basic model for the governance of driverless driving.
A relatively positive message is that this afternoon there is news that Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius said in a media conference call on February 24, European time, that Mercedes-Benz hopes to obtain the license of L3 self-driving cars in the United States this year and is discussing the topic with relevant Chinese authorities.
"We are promoting the certification of L3 level autonomous driving technology in the United States and are in talks with relevant Chinese authorities to certify such technologies," Kang said. ”
He had previously said that Mercedes-Benz hopes to promote L3 level autonomous driving technology to outside Europe this year. Last December, the German auto regulator approved Mercedes-Benz to launch an L3 level autonomous driving system in Germany, making Mercedes-Benz the first automaker to be approved in Germany.
The Mercedes-Benz L3 autopilot system is approved for use on around 13,000 kilometers per motorway in Germany at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour. Mercedes-Benz plans to offer S-Class cars equipped with the Drive Pilot system to customers in Germany in the first half of this year.
With rules and regulations, it is conducive to the exchange and application of new technologies.
Humanity is passing through a period of fear for autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, which means that norms are working.
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