TuSimple Holdings Inc. said on Thursday it will cut 30% of its workforce in the United States under a restructuring as the autonomous driving technology company looks to preserve its balance sheet amid a funding crunch in the sector.
The Osaka-based company intends to tap subsidies provided by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, as well as focus on cylindrical batteries and the North American market to expand.
Over the past two years, San Francisco startup Ample Inc. has quietly deployed more than a dozen robotic battery-swap stations around the Bay Area and in Europe. On an afternoon in May at an unmarked warehouse, the company previewed its next-generation swapping stations, at which a drained battery can be changed out for a charged one in about five minutes — half the time of its current stations.
Parts break, information screens freeze, payment systems malfunction. Copper thieves steal the cords. Vandals damage charging plugs. In the U.S., nascent networks mean that if the machines at one station aren’t working, there may not be another nearby.
UAW workers began striking at a Constellium aluminum components plant in suburban Detroit on Wednesday over health and safety issues and management’s disciplinary practices. Meanwhile, a UAW strike at a Clarios battery plant near Toledo has reached day 10 without a resolution.