The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has closed its investigation into an accident involving a TuSimple autonomous truck with no penalties imposed.
TuSimple announced that it had responded to multiple inquiries from the FMCSA following the April 6 non-injury related incident on Interstate 10 in Arizona. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) declined to launch a separate investigation.
The incident occurred when a driver-monitored autonomous truck took an unintended sharp left turn across a lane of western traffic on I-10 and crashed into a concrete barrier. The security driver attempted to countersteer the vehicle, but the truck obeyed a computer-generated command that was several minutes old. TuSimple initially said the incident was due to the driver error. The company later admitted that both the computer system and the security driver were at fault.
The accident damaged reputation by TuSimple as a leading startup in the field of autonomous truck traffic and the industry, bringing renewed criticism that computer controlled trucks are not ready. Still, CEO Cheng Lu stressed that TuSimple puts safety first and that the company halted autonomous operations after the incident. In addition, an internal review was carried out and they are cooperating with the authorities to improve the systems and test operations.
TuSimple was the first company to conduct a driverless pilot called Ghost Rider. The truck, with no crew in the cab, made an 80-mile overnight journey from Tucson to a train station east of Phoenix in December 2021.
After several months of board dramas Navistar and TuSimple Ended their partnership at the end of 2022, which focused on developing a Class 8 truck to be launched in 2025. However, CEO Cheng Lu emphasized that the company is determined to continue its mission and develop a commercial driving solution for long-haul autonomous trucks.