Hydron to produce hydrogen-powered autonomous-ready trucks
The path to commercializing autonomous vehicles requires the complex integration of both hardware and software.
Mo Chen, Co-Founder of San Diego-based autonomous driving company TuSimple, has started a new company, Hydron, committed to developing, manufacturing, and selling hydrogen-powered trucks equipped with L4 autonomous driving technology.
Chen is set on transforming long-haul freight transportation through hydrogen-powered autonomous trucks making trucking safer, cleaner, and more efficient, minimizing the carbon footprint of class 8 heavy-duty trucks globally.
Southern California-based Hydron focuses on developing, manufacturing, and selling hydrogen fuel-cell-powered autonomous-ready class-8 trucks and intends to provide hydrogen refuelling infrastructure for large fleets and leading carriers in the future.
Southern California-based Hydron focuses on developing, manufacturing, and selling hydrogen fuel-cell-powered autonomous-ready class-8 trucks and intends to provide hydrogen refuelling infrastructure for large fleets and leading carriers in the future.
Chen, a Canadian entrepreneur, co-founded self-driving technology company TuSimple with business partner Xiaodi Hou in 2015. Tusimple quickly attracted the attention of global logistics giant UPS, who invested in the company back in 2019 before TuSimple went public through a traditional IPO raising $1.3 billion in total funding.
Hydron plans to become a leading provider of hydrogen-powered autonomous trucks and refuelling infrastructure through partnerships to become a complete solution provider for autonomous driving companies, commercial fleets, and leading carriers.
Hydron also plans to collaborate with partners to build a manufacturing facility in North America to better meet the US supply chain challenges. The first generation of Hydron trucks is expected to enter mass production in Q3 of 2024, with a complete set of sensors, computing units, and redundant actuators to meet L4 autonomous driving requirements.
Mo Chen, CEO at Hydron, said, “The biggest challenge in bringing autonomous driving to the market at scale is not software development, but access to reliable mass production hardware, and now with Hydron, we will be able to provide automotive-grade hardware specifically for autonomous networks.”
