TuSimple has introduced its proprietary central computer unit, the TuSimple Domain Controller (TDC), which the company says will serve as an autonomous truck’s central computational unit, incorporating sensor inputs, high-performance computing, integrated vehicle control unit (VCU), and autonomous software to enable autonomous driving solutions.
The TDC has been a multi-year project following the January 2022 announced use of NVIDIA technology to develop a proprietary domain controller, the company says. The company and select customers are currently testing and validating B-sample units. C-sample units are expected to ship in Q2 2023, followed by production units in Q4 2023.
TuSimple says its TDC aims to work with different sensor configurations and TuSimple application software to permit a range of autonomous offerings, including:
- ADAS: Next-generation L2+ and conditional L3 ADAS solutions for commercial vehicles to improve road safety and fuel utilization;
- Perception fusion module: A hardware and software module fusing together different sensor modalities; and
- L4 autonomy: Primary or redundant computing unit to power full L4 autonomous systems.
The benefits of a proprietary designed system include better integration, lower power consumption, faster development cycles and lower costs for end-users, according to TuSimple. The TDC is powered by the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC) and supports next-generation ADAS projects for commercial vehicles in the Chinese market with the potential to expand to US and European markets, the company says.
“We intend to utilize the TDC for computational redundancy in powering our L4 autonomous driving solution,” said Lei Wang, TuSimple SVP of technology. “We expect the next generation of the TDC will replace the primary computational system to enable OEM production-ready, L4 autonomous vehicles.”
