TuSimple Develops Autonomous Domain Controller Using NVIDIA DRIVE Orin to Bring Level 4 Autonomous Trucking to Market at Scale

TuSimple (Nasdaq: TSP), a global autonomous driving technology company, has expanded its ongoing partnership with NVIDIA to design and develop an advanced autonomous domain controller (ADC) specifically engineered for TuSimple’s Level 4 autonomous trucking applications. The ADC design will incorporate the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC), which is specifically designed for AI-based autonomous driving applications. The collaboration with NVIDIA is intended to accelerate TuSimple’s ability to put autonomous trucks on the Autonomous Freight Network (AFN) at scale with a production-ready computing solution capable of handling both the unique requirements and powerful computational needs of TuSimple’s autonomous driving system (ADS).

The scalable NVIDIA DRIVE Orin SoC delivers 254 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of performance and is the central computer for intelligent vehicles—powering safe autonomous driving capabilities.

The ADC is an integral part of TuSimple’s autonomous driving system and serves as an autonomous semi-truck’s central compute unit that processes hundreds of TOPS, including mission-critical perception, planning, and actuation functions. As a result, TuSimple can expedite the development of a high-performance, automotive-grade, and scalable ADC that will be integrated into future autonomous truck production programs. This strategic vertical integration will give TuSimple more control over the ADC’s capabilities and accelerate its development timeline.

“A high-performance, production-ready ADC is a critical piece to scaling our AFN, and we are taking a hands-on role to advance its development with the help of NVIDIA,” said Cheng Lu, President, and CEO of TuSimple. “We believe this move provides us a significant competitive advantage in speeding time to market and further extending our industry leadership position.”

TuSimple will leverage its proficiency in developing an advanced Level 4 ADS for semi-trucks, while NVIDIA will contribute its DRIVE Orin hardware and AI expertise based on its decades of experience designing cutting-edge accelerated computing platforms. TuSimple will own usage rights to the ADC reference design, including certain limited “first-use” provisions. TuSimple intends to work with third-party manufacturers for the production of the ADC.

“We have been strong advocates of TuSimple from the start, first as an NVIDIA Inception member back in 2017, and now as they continue to blaze trails in the autonomous trucking industry,” said Gary Hicok, senior vice president of engineering at NVIDIA. “TuSimple is moving from development using NVIDIA GPUs to production based on DRIVE Orin -- this new powerful and scalable ADC solution will help move the entire autonomous trucking industry forward.”

TuSimple launched the world’s first Autonomous Freight Network in 2020 and today operates a fleet of more than 50 autonomous trucks between Arizona and Florida.