Autonomous driving technology company TuSimple has announced its executive leadership succession plan. TuSimple Co-Founder and CTO Xiaodi Hou will succeed Cheng Lu as president and CEO and succeed Mo Chen as chairman of the board, effective today. 

According to TuSimple, this is part of a planned executive succession as the company moves to its next phase of commercializing L4 autonomous trucking technology. Lu will serve as an adviser to the CEO until March 2023 to further ensure an effective transition.

“I’m incredibly proud of TuSimple’s achievements. We’ve set many industry firsts, including becoming the first publicly traded autonomous driving company and first driver-out operations in trucking,” said Cheng Lu. “We have built a strong foundation with the necessary resources to fully commercialize. We have a clear vision, industry-leading technology, scalable commercial operations, world-class strategic partners, and a strong balance sheet. I’m excited for Xiaodi to transition to CEO and chairman and have the utmost confidence in our success as we move to our next phase of development.”

“I would like to thank Cheng for his contributions in helping to build TuSimple. We have worked closely together to develop a clear roadmap to commercialization, and to scale our Autonomous Freight Network. Over the past several years, we have assembled a world-class management team to continue to build on our success and to ensure a smooth transition,” said Xiaodi Hou.

“As chairman of the board, I’m proud to pass the torch to Xiaodi. In our first year as a public company, we have successfully achieved all of our key milestones. We have built a strong corporate infrastructure and governance model. With TuSimple having entered into the Driver-Out era, the path to commercialization is clear, and Xiaodi is the best person to lead us in executing on that roadmap,” said Mo Chen.