On January 22, Beijing time, regarding the news and rumors that Tucson, the "first stock of autonomous driving," will be delisted from the US stock market in the future, Tucson China CEO Hao Jianan responded to some market rumors in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald reporters.
Prior to this, on January 17th, Tucson Future announced that the company voluntarily delisted its common stock from NASDAQ and terminated its registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Regarding this, Hao Jianan said in an interview, "I originally intended to remain silent, but there are some misunderstandings from outside, so I hope to clarify some of the rumors."
L4 autonomous driving remains the most important business
According to the data, Tucson will mainly operate advanced autonomous driving (L4) truck freight services and provide full stack solutions for autonomous driving for car manufacturers in the future.
According to Tucson's announcement on the future US stock market, the company will submit the cancellation of its common stock listing to the SEC on January 29th, with an expected final trading date of February 7th.
On the day of the announcement, Tucson's future stock price fell 46.33% to $0.38 per share, and then entered a broad range of fluctuations. As of the time of publication, Tucson's future report is 0.452 US dollars per share, with a total market value of less than 100 million US dollars.
"There are some misunderstood voices outside (Tucson China), including whether Tucson China will switch to doing L2+business in the future, and the entire Tucson may not do L4," said Hao Jianan.
Regarding related rumors, he emphasized that Tucson's most important business has always been L4 autonomous driving, while empowering manufacturers with L2+business is more of a type of business that accompanies the promotion of L4 business.
"L4 is a highly reliable system that requires a lot of research and development. Some of the technologies can actually be converted into L2 and serve our OEM (whole vehicle manufacturer) customers."
Last April, Tucson China launched the autonomous driving solution "TS-BOX", which replaces the computing power requirements of Shunyu Optics' camera imaging, Tudatong's LiDAR point cloud, GNSS navigation and positioning with the core computing power of NVIDIA OrinX or OrinN deployed in "TS Box". The plan is to provide car manufacturers with ADAS solutions with strong traceability, strong iteration potential, and more cost-effective.
For Tucson Future, who was currently rectifying the company's management structure, this move was partially understood as the company's future focus on providing L2 level solutions in China.
Hao Jianan denied the use of the China US border as a differentiation for the company's L2+and L4 businesses, and stated that the company's research and development core is still in China.
"From the perspective of research and development, China has lower costs and a more complete industrial chain. There is also a very good policy foundation for L4 now. There is no conflict between L2 and L4 businesses. This is something we need to clarify," said Hao Jianan.
In addition, he also revealed that the company currently has about 600 employees in China, the vast majority of whom are research and development engineers.
How is commercialization progressing?
With the delisting of the US stock company, Tucson's future business focus may become more focused on the Chinese market.
"The United States has actually experienced two layoffs, so there has been little promotion of its business in the United States and it is basically in a frozen state. On the domestic company side, although there have been some disturbances in recent years, they have been working on L4 research and development and L2 products. Tucson China's scale is also expanding, so it can be considered that Tucson's research and development center is located in China," Hao Jianan told reporters.
Last June, Tucson Future was included in the first batch of fully automated driving intelligent connected vehicle demonstration application enterprises in Pudong, Shanghai. It is expected to become one of the first fully automated driving enterprises in the Shanghai region to achieve commercial vehicle revenue through gradual promotion of commercial operation pilot projects.
It is worth noting that compared to operating autonomous truck business in the United States, the bargaining space for L4 trucks as alternative drivers is actually more limited due to the lower hourly wages of Chinese truck drivers.
Regarding this, Hao Jianan pointed out to reporters that although the cost of truck drivers in China is relatively low, their scale is guaranteed and according to calculations, they can also achieve positive returns.
Hao Jianan also revealed the progress of the company's demonstration operation of intelligent connected vehicles in Pudong.
"The pilot licenses in Shanghai are roughly divided into two types: manned and unmanned. For the unmanned part, we have entered the testing stage and will further upgrade it to a higher demonstration operation license in the future." He said that in the future, this commercial revenue will mainly focus on the freight consolidation of the East China Sea Bridge.
According to reporters, last year when Tucson released "TS-BOX" in the future, there were no L2 solution clients in progress. But according to Hao Jianan, the company currently has two OEM fixed-point projects in progress. The relevant OEMs are all leading companies in the industry, but specific details still need to be announced by the government.
In the past year, Tucson has faced challenges such as industry downturn, intensified competition, and board chaos in the future. Delisting is just around the corner, and Tucson, far from the hustle and bustle of the capital market, how can he sustain himself and return to the main operating road in the future? The reporter will continue to monitor.
