(JW Insights) Jul 14 -- Chinese autonomous driving truck startup TuSimple Holdings (图森未来) announced in June that it will enter the Japanese market to help alleviate the driver shortage facing the freight industry in the country amid an aging population, reported Yicai Global.

TuSimple carried out self-driving tests on the Tomei Expressway which connects Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, the San Diego-based company said in a statement on its official WeChat account last month.

Over 45 percent of drivers in Japan's transportation sector were aged over 50 last year, TuSimple noted, citing Japanese government figures. According to an official plan, Japan’s government will build autonomous driving lanes on some sections of the Tomei Expressway next year, the firm added.

Popularizing autonomous driving will effectively alleviate the shortage of drivers in the Japanese logistics industry, TuSimple's chief executive officer Lu Cheng said. The company will actively cooperate with Japanese partners to provide safe, energy-saving, and efficient self-driving truck solutions, Lu noted.

Established in 2015 and based in San Diego, California, it has offices in with offices in Arizona, Texas, and Beijing. It listed in New York in April 2021.

Last December, TuSimple announced it would lay off 25 percent of its staff in the United States. On May 18, it announced a restructuring of its US operations that would see about a further 30 percent of its workers in the US let go.

As of March, TuSimple's total mileage tested, developed, and commercialized exceeded 16 million kilometers, the company’s latest data showed, according to the Yicai Global report.

(Gao J/Yuan XY)