Ten of TuSimple’s autonomous large rigs are set to be auctioned off later this month, only a few weeks after the self-driving trucking startup that went public in 2021 introduced it was exiting the U.S. market.

The vehicles, together with a slew of analysis and growth gear and workplace provides, might be offered off in two on-line auctions. The first is slated to run January 23-25, and a second is scheduled for February 6-8. A spokesperson for the public sale firm confirmed 10 vehicles will “initially” be offered. TuSimple, which had an workplace in San Diego and an operations facility in Tucson, Arizona, reported in November that it had 35 autonomous vehicles in the US. It’s unclear what’s going to occur to the opposite 25.

TuSimple’s fall from high-flying startup standing to being touted as an “Unbelievable Supply!!” in an internet public sale is an indication of simply how treacherous the highway has turn into for AV startups.

Embark Applied sciences offered itself (and likewise auctioned off some vehicles) in 2023, simply two years after going public in a transaction that valued the corporate at greater than $5 billion. Argo AI shut down in late 2022 regardless of having large backers in Ford and Volkswagen. Cruise paused operations, slashed its workforce and pushed out various executives after one among its AVs was concerned in a crash late final yr.

Based in 2015, TuSimple was one of many earlier gamers that attempted to skip straight to growing totally driverless vehicles for shifting items across the nation. It even gained a short contract in 2019 to run mail for the U.S. Postal Service between its Phoenix and Dallas distribution facilities.

Although it usually positioned itself as an American startup, TuSimple’s founders and funding originated from China. The corporate went public in 2021 and was swiftly scrutinized by the Committee on International Funding in the US over its Chinese language shareholders. It finally wound up below investigation by each the FBI and the Securities and Alternate Fee, and subsequently misplaced an important deal to co-develop self-driving large rigs with trucking big Navistar in late 2022. Since then, the corporate’s share value has continued to fall from a excessive in July 2021 of $62.58 to simply $0.73 at the moment.

TuSimple spent a lot of 2023 altering its priorities, saying at one level that it will dump its China enterprise earlier than reversing course and saying it needed to unload the U.S. operation. In December, the corporate stated it will exit the U.S. altogether and laid off greater than 150 staff in consequence.