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UPS Buys Stake in Autonomous Trucking Company

United Parcel Service Inc. has acquired an unspecified minority stake in TuSimple Inc., a San Diego-based startup that supplies autonomous driving technology for commercial truck applications. 

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United Parcel Service Inc. has acquired an unspecified minority stake in TuSimple Inc., a San Diego-based startup that supplies autonomous driving technology for commercial truck applications.

 

Terms of the deal weren’t provided. TuSimple raised $95 million in February in a funding round led by Chinese online media company Sina Corp.

Earlier this year, UPS began testing trucks fitted with TuSimple’s technology on highway routes between Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz. A backup driver and engineer monitor the trucks.   

TuSimple also is working with Amazon.com on similar tests and conducted a two-week pilot program with the U.S. Postal Service in May.

Founded in 2015, TuSimple operates more than 50 Level 4 autonomous trucks that it has been testing with partners in Arizona. The company aims to test fully self-driving vehicles without safety drivers in late 2020 or early 2021.

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