Report: Tusimple sent sensitive autonomous driving data to China after US national security agreement

Self-driving truck startup Tusimple (now Createai) has sent a heap of sensitive data to companies owned by Beijing after committing to the US government to effectively halt such relocations under a national security agreement. Wall Street Journal.

Transfers to Chinese truck manufacturers occurred around February In 2022, just a week after Tusimple signed the agreement, US regulators ordered businesses to separate business and technology from China-based employees through firewalls and governance control. Data sharing continued until Tusimple’s deadline to comply with the contract six months later, according to hundreds of pages of communication seen by the journal.

Subsequent investigations with the US Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS) found that data sharing was technically not breaching the contract, but Tusimple was fined for other violations and paid a $6 million settlement without admitting disability.

TechCrunch was unable to reach Createai’s Tusimple now due to comments.

Still, Tusimple’s data transfer saga reveals the limitations of US safeguards aimed at balancing foreign investment and national security. And it’s not just the data that Tusimple is trying to cross borders.

This latest revelation will be made in 8 months Reported by TechCrunch Several of Tusimple’s shareholders are trying to fund AI animation and content generation, as they tried to prevent the then US funds (approximately $450 million at the time) from transferring US funds to Chinese subsidiary. The drama is still unfolding as one of Tusimple’s co-founder Xiaodi Hou. Push liquidation Company’s. December 2024, Tusimple has officially been rebranded to Createai.

The company has been caught up in controversy since it was released via an IPO in 2021. Tusimple began in 2015 as a China-backed startup founded by entrepreneurs Hou and Lu Chen with ties to Sina Corp. Public highways.

Tusimple’s plan has gotten worse in a federal investigation into internal struggles and federal government’s relationship with China, leading to that decision. Ends operation in the US It was then voluntarily abolished from the stock market in January 2024. The goal was to resume the autonomous driving business in China, but both the CFIUS contract and other court orders that prohibited the transfer of assets to the company made it impossible to transfer financially or otherwise to China.

Journal reports shed light on earlier Reported a controversy over hydrolona Chinese hydrogen trucking startup founded by Chen, shared an office with Tusimple China. The overlap between Hydron and Tusimple was the subject of the 2022 CFIUS probe. Meanwhile, Tusimple revealed that employees spent time working at Hydron in 2021, sharing confidential information with the company.

According to the document, Tusimple negotiated a contract between Hydron and Foton in 2021 to develop an autonomous truck, according to the journal seen by the journal. Foton, a subsidiary of the state-owned BAIC Group, has agreed with Chinese military universities to tackle AV Tech.

For each journal, we sent our partners technical instructions for server dimensions, brake design, sensors, steering, power supply and chips through a combination of email, slack messages and video calls. Employees also regularly downloaded the autonomous source code developed by their American counterparts.

As geopolitical tensions and competition with China rise, Tusimple’s bond serves as a warning story for Washington. Shift in US policyfosters stricter rules on China-linked technology transactions, and promotes a broader push to completely block high-risk transactions.