Chen Mo, the co-founder of TuSimple, announced the establishment of HYDRON to enter the manufacturing of hydrogen-fueled unmanned heavy-duty trucks

On June 10, Chen Mo, co-founder and former executive chairman of Tucson Future, an autonomous driving technology company, announced that it will create a hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty truck and hydrogen refueling infrastructure focusing on R&D, design, manufacturing and sales that can be equipped with L4-level autonomous driving functions. Service new company - "HYDRON", headquartered in Ontario, California, USA.

According to Yiou Automobile, HYDRON is a hydrogen fuel heavy truck manufacturer and hydrogen refueling infrastructure provider focusing on the research and development, design, manufacture and sales of L4-level autonomous driving functions.

HYDRON's first manufacturing plant will be located in North America, and truck products will be sold directly to autonomous driving companies and large logistics customers. The target markets include North America, Europe, and the Middle East, enabling localized production of vehicles in North America.

The goal of HYDRON is to create a low-carbon and smart new era in the freight industry by promoting the application of hydrogen fueled autonomous heavy trucks and hydrogen refueling infrastructure.

It is worth noting that HYDRON will only focus on the research and development, design, manufacture and sales of hydrogen-fueled heavy trucks that can be equipped with L4-level autonomous driving functions, but will not develop autonomous driving software technology.

HYDRON currently does not produce hydrogen, but cooperates with hydrogen suppliers. Hydron plans to provide customers with hydrogen refueling infrastructure services. HYDRON trucks can use green hydrogen or blue hydrogen as fuel, and the specific choice will be left to the customer.

HYDRON trucks are specially designed for L4-level autonomous driving systems and will be equipped with a full set of sensors, computing units and redundant actuators. The first-generation HYDRON trucks will be able to achieve full driverless driving within the ODD design operating range.Performance details and pricing for the first-generation truck, the Hydron One, have yet to be revealed.

In the future, HYDRON will maintain close cooperation with a number of the world's top Tier 1 suppliers and other autonomous driving companies other than Tucson Future. Its first-generation products are expected to be delivered in Q3 2024, and mass-produced vehicles will be equipped with L4 A full suite of sensors, computing units and redundant actuators for level autonomous driving functions.

In 2015, Chen Mo and Hou Xiaodi co-founded TuSimple, and the company quickly grew into a global leader in the field of autonomous driving.In 2019, TuSimple received investment from the global logistics giant UPS in the future; in April 2021, TuSimple was successfully listed on Nasdaq in the United States, with a total financing of more than 1.3 billion US dollars, becoming the world's first listed autonomous driving company.

In December of the same year, Tucson completed the world's first fully unmanned test of unmanned heavy trucks on public roads without any manual and remote intervention.

In the future, Chen Mo will be fully involved in the management and operation of the new company as the CEO of HYDRON.

Chen Mo said that the large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving technology requires strong software and hardware integration capabilities.HYDRON was founded because it realized that the biggest challenge to be solved in the autonomous driving industry is not software development, but whether the hardware can be delivered to mass production on time and reliably.

Chen Mo hopes to focus on the R&D and manufacturing of heavy trucks equipped with L4-level autonomous driving functions by deeply cultivating the green hydrogen energy field, and provide autonomous-driving software companies and large logistics customers with clean energy solutions for long-distance freight that support L4-level autonomous driving functions. Addressing the challenges of rising fuel costs, driver loss and shortages, and rising traffic accidents.

According to Yiou Automobile, the first-generation product HYDRON ONE will use a gas-hydrogen system, and a liquid-hydrogen system is also under development.