Tucson unmanned vehicle founder’s car-building project exposed: hydrogen-fueled heavy truck, invested 80 million US dollars, has become a unicorn – yqqlm

Hydrogen fuel heavy trucks, star new players officially announced today.

Chen Mothe co-founder of TuSimple Future and the former executive chairman of TuSimple Future, officially announced the establishment of a car manufacturing company named HYDRON.

The company aims at the direction of hydrogen fuel heavy trucks, and the goal is to develop, design, manufacture and sell vehicles that can be equipped with L4-level autonomous driving functions.Hydrogen fuel heavy truckand the provision of hydrogen refueling infrastructure services.

The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and the construction of a factory has been put on the agenda.The first generation product is expected to be delivered in Q3 2024.

It is said that the production model will be equipped with a full set of sensors, computing units and redundant actuators that meet the L4 level of autonomous driving functions.

Notably,This project is Chen Mo’s independent re-entrepreneurship projectand it has no direct relationship with the equity of TuSimple, the world’s first share of autonomous driving, which was previously co-founded.

In the future adjustment of Tucson in March this year, Chen Mo became the chairman of Tucson China, leading the business of Tucson China. As a continuous re-entrepreneurship project initiated by Chen Mo, Smart Car Reference learned from VC channels that Hydron is making rapid progress, and has completed 2 rounds of financing since the underwater launch.Total financing exceeds $80 millionthe pre-round B round valuation has reached 1 billion US dollars.

Today, publicity is a unicorn.

How does Hydron make L4 heavy trucks?

In fact, it is not without warning that Chen Mo builds a car. Earlier, a company called “Turing Smart Card” has repeatedly become the object of heated rumors.

And now, Chen Mo has officially made it clear that the official name of the new company is Hydron. Hydron, as the name implies, clarifies the hydrogen fuel-Hydrogen route from the name.

And Hydron’s hydrogen fuel grand plan consists of two parts:

a bitHydrogen truck version of TeslaIt means, and Hydron has made it clear from the beginning that it wants to reach the L4 level in the level of autonomous driving capability, that is, it does not require human drivers to participate in driving.

But interestingly,Hydron says it doesn’t plan to develop self-driving software technologyInstead, it is equipped with an autonomous driving software system through cooperation, and the truck sales target includes both autonomous driving companies and large logistics customers.

This is also a commercial landing model that has been verified by demand.

For example, Tucson Future, an autonomous driving software system development company, has cooperated with traditional truck giant Navistar and Volkswagen’s Traton in mass production, and has provided autonomous driving capacity services for large logistics companies such as UPS.

In terms of hydrogen fuel details, Hydron also revealed that,The first generation of products will use a gas hydrogen system, and a liquid hydrogen system is also being developed.

Hydron’s plan is to be able toHydrogen SupplierCollaborate and can provide hydrogen refueling infrastructure services to its own customers. By analogy, Tesla does not generate electricity, but builds supercharging stations and provides charging services for car owners.

In addition, Hydron Truck also revealed that in the choice of green hydrogen and blue hydrogen, although the choice is up to the customer, it tends to promote the development of green hydrogen.

As we all know, there are three main types of hydrogen fuel:

Grey Hydrogen – Grey Hydrogen, Blue Hydrogen – Blue Hydrogen and Green Hydrogen – Green Hydrogen.

The first two generate hydrogen from fossil fuels (such as natural gas), while green hydrogen is produced through an electrolysis process using renewable energy sources (such as solar or wind power), with net-zero carbon emissions.

Finally, the first generation of Hydron trucks has also entered the R&D design stage, although the performance details have not been disclosed,However, it has been revealed that in terms of battery life, the Hydron ONE will far exceed the level of any electric truck currently on the market..

At the same time, Hydron trucks will be specially designed for L4-level autonomous driving systems, equipped with a full set of sensors, computing units and redundant actuators. This means that Hydron trucks can be fully autonomous within the ODD design operating range.

Finally, Hydron also revealed that the first factory will be established in North America, and the expected delivery time of the first generation product is the third quarter of 2024.

Why choose to start a new business to build a truck?

As a serial entrepreneur, Chen Mo’s re-start is not surprising. He has had a successful experience in starting a business before.

Before the launch of Hydron, Chen Mo and Hou Xiaodi co-founded TuSimple, a self-driving truck technology company, in 2015, and quickly became an industry leader in terms of technology, products, landing operations and capital valuation.

Then in April 2021, Tucson successfully listed on Nasdaq in the United States, becoming the world’s first autonomous driving stock, creating a new history.

In December of the same year, Tucson completed the world’s first fully unmanned test of unmanned heavy trucks on open roads, without any manual and remote intervention throughout the whole process, once again a major technological milestone and a clear industry leader.

However, in March 2022, TuSimple will make a board adjustment in the future. Chen Mo will step down as the executive chairman and hand over to Hou Xiaodi, the entrepreneurial partner. Chen Mo will continue to serve as the chairman of Tucson China and continue to lead the Tucson China business team.

In fact, before and after the announcement of Tucson’s future adjustment, the rumors about Chen Mo’s start of a car-making business have been hotly debated in the market, and rumors say that various developments are progressing rapidly and are well received by capital.

The Smart Car Reference further learned that since the establishment of Hydron Trucks, it has quickly completed angel and A round financing, with a cumulative financing amount of more than 80 million US dollars, and the latest round B pre-investment valuation has reached $1 billion – Already a unicorn.

There is also news from VC that the Series B financing of Hydron Trucks has been launched, with a target of raising $200 million.

However, the relevant rumors were not announced in the official announcement of Hydron.

As the CEO of Hydron, Mo Chen talked about why he started again – choosing to build a car.

The large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving technology requires strong software and hardware integration capabilities.

Chen Mo said that his previous entrepreneurial experience made him realize that the biggest challenge to be solved urgently in the autonomous driving industry is not software development, but whether the hardware can be mass-produced and delivered on time and reliably.

In addition, the reason for choosing hydrogen fuel for energy is that in the field of freight transportation, hydrogen energy trucks are more in line with its goal of providing low-carbon, smart and disruptive freight solutions.