On October 31, the Wall Street Journal stated that the US government decided to investigate the future car company Hydron of Tucson because of the suspicion of technology sharing between the two parties. The U.S. government will focus on investigating whether CEO Hou Xiaodi violated fiduciary duty and securities laws by failing to properly disclose his relationship with Hydron, the report said.
While facing the investigation, TuSimple announced in an internal email disclosed the dismissal of CEO, president and chief technology officer Hou Xiaodi, and the removal of Hou Xiaodi from the board.
Ersin Yumer, executive vice president of operations, will serve as CEO and president, while the company begins its search for a new CEO.
Affected by this news, U.S. stocks Tucson plummeted 45.64% that night.
After this incident, Hou Xiaodi also personally issued a long article denying the accusation, and also believed that the process and conclusion of the board’s dismissal of his position were doubtful:
“Unfortunately, the board’s procedures and conclusions are questionable, and as the facts emerge, I am confident that my decisions as CEO and chairman, and our vision for Tucson’s future, will be borne out.”
If the U.S. government finds out that Tucson has provided funds or transferred technology to Hydron in the future, Tucson may face huge fines in the future.
Xinzhijia learned that it may have been aware of the danger of being re-regulated by the US government in advance, and Chen Mo had already shut down Hydron 3 months ago. (About the future internal turmoil of Tucson, we will launch more detailed articles in the follow-up, welcome to add WeChat communication at the end of the article)
What kind of company is Hydron?
In 2015, Chen Mo and Hou Xiaodi co-founded TuSimple. In just a few years since its establishment, the company has rapidly grown into the number one player in the global autonomous driving field and is favored in the capital market.
On April 15, 2021, TuSimple successfully landed on Nasdaq in the future, becoming the world’s first autonomous driving stock. Sina, the largest institutional shareholder, cashed out 1.8 billion yuan, with a return on investment of 12 times.
For a time, Tucson became a star company in the autonomous driving circle in the future, and the development noise in the market was gradually rising. However, Tucson’s future prosperity did not last long. After it went public, it began to go downhill.
TuSimple has not been profitable since its establishment, and the loss will even expand to US$733 million by 2021. In addition, the valuation of TuSimple in the future has dropped again and again, from the valuation of over US$8 billion at the beginning of the listing to today. of less than $800 million, and the stock price has repeatedly plunged.
In addition, due to the supervision of the US government, many foreign executives in Tucson were forced to resign in the future, including Chairman Chen Mo.
After leaving Tucson Future, at that time, hydrogen fuel vehicles were blowing a trend in the field of autonomous driving. Chen Mo resolutely chose to step into the outlet of hydrogen fuel heavy trucks and started his fifth business in his life.
On June 10, Chen Mo announced that he will establish a new company, “Hydron”, which focuses on the research and development, design, manufacture and sales of hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty trucks and hydrogen refueling infrastructure services that can be equipped with L4-level autonomous driving functions. The new company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Hydron plans to build a manufacturing plant with partners in North America to realize the localized production of vehicles in North America. The first-generation products are expected to be delivered in Q3 2024, and the production vehicles will be equipped with a full set of sensors, computing units and redundant actuators that meet L4-level autonomous driving functions.
Chen Mo, as the head of Hydron, is fully involved in the management and operation of the new company. Regarding the future relationship with TuSimple, Chen Mo previously emphasized to the media that Hydron is an independent private company and has no equity relationship with TuSimple.
Supervision, an insurmountable threshold
As a new company founded by future former founders of Tucson, Hydron will undoubtedly receive high attention from the US government.
Tucson is listed on Nasdaq in the future, and has operations in China and the United States, although the business focus in China and the United States is not the same: in the United States, Tucson will focus on mainline unmanned driving, while in China, TuSimple Sen’s future business focus is on unmanned ports.
However, under the constraints of national data security, Tucson has been unable to escape the fate of US government supervision and investigation in the future.
Jim Mullen, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer of Tucson Future, revealed that as early as 2020, the U.S. government has been paying attention to Tucson Future.
After the listing, the regulation is even worse, and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has launched an ongoing investigation into the future of Tucson for nearly a year, which will not officially end until February 18, 2022.
Previously, in order to meet the requirements of the US government, Tucson had to back down again and again in the future.
At the beginning of this year, under the strict supervision of China and the United States, TuSimple decided to split its business in China and the United States in the future, and decided to focus on the US market.
It is understood that the decision was made after it reached an agreement with the US government to restrict Chinese departments from accessing data due to US security concerns.
Earlier, it was reported that TuSimple decided to sell its business in China for US$1 billion and had approached several Chinese investors, including private equity firm Boyu Capital, to find potential buyers.
In addition to this, TuSimple will also be required to make personnel adjustments to senior management in the future.
In early March, TuSimple officially announced that Lv Cheng, who had served as the president, CEO and board member of TuSimple since 2018, will step down, and Hou Xiaodi, the former chief technology officer, will become the new CEO and president. In addition, Chen Mo, the former chairman of the board of directors, was also taken over by Hou Xiaodi.
write at the end
The number one autopilot player who once enjoyed infinite glory is now struggling on the edge of life and death. After a high-level adjustment and the stock price diving, now Tucson will add another farce in the future.
The future of Tucson has always been a topic of focus in the autonomous driving circle.
What is the result of the review now? Whether Tucson will face a huge fine in the future is still undetermined, but what is certain is that Tucson still has a long way to go before it really leaves the danger zone.
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