TuSimple CEO Xiaodi Hou leaves

  • Push-out Score determined
  • After less than one year in the position
  • Praise and thanks for Hou
  • Ersin Yumer taking over temporarily
  • Search for a successor

(exechange) — San Diego, California, October 31, 2022 — Xiaodi Hou, chief executive of TuSimple, leaves. As announced by TuSimple Holdings Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, October 31, 2022, Xiaodi Hou has left his post as chief executive officer at the self-driving truck startup, after less than one year in the role, effective October 30, 2022.

TuSimple will undertake a search for a successor.

Xiaodi Hou’s duties as CEO will be taken over temporarily by Ersin Yumer, most recently Executive Vice President of Operations at TuSimple Holdings Inc., as interim Chief Executive Officer.

“Ongoing investigation”

Xiaodi Hou’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. TuSimple said: “These actions have been taken in connection with an ongoing investigation led by the Audit Committee of the Board that led the Board to conclude that a change of Chief Executive Officer was necessary.”

TuSimple also stated in a regulatory filing: “As of the time of this filing, the Company believes that, based on information obtained in connection with an ongoing investigation by the Company’s Audit Committee, during 2021 Company employees spent paid hours working on matters for Hydron Inc. (f/k/a Turing Auto), a company which the Company believes has significant operations in China, and that such paid hours had an estimated value of less than $300,000. Mr. Mo Chen, one of our co-founders and former Executive Chairman, is a founder, director and chief executive officer of Hydron, and he has an equity interest in the Company of greater than 10%. This related party transaction was not presented to, or approved by, the Audit Committee as required by the Company’s Code of Conduct. Based on the Audit Committee’s investigation, which remains ongoing, the Company also believes that during 2022, in connection with the Company’s evaluation of Hydron as a potential OEM partner, the Company shared confidential information with Hydron and its partners, which was not brought to the attention of the Audit Committee and Government Security Committee, and before entering into relevant non-disclosure and other cooperation agreements. After the information was disclosed, the Company entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Hydron that covered the information. The Company does not know whether Hydron shared, or publicly disclosed, the information before entering into that agreement. The Company believes based on the Audit Committee’s ongoing investigation that the information shared is not related to the intangible assets or patents reflected on the Company’s balance sheet. At this time, the Company has not been able to determine the value, if any, of such information.”

Precise information regarding Xiaodi Hou’s future plans was not immediately available.

“Terminated”

TuSimple said: “[T]he Board of Directors of the Company has terminated Dr. Xiaodi Hou, the Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Technology Officer of the Company, and removed Dr. Hou from his position as Chairman of the Board and as a member of the Government Security Committee, effective as of October 30, 2022.”

Share price decline since March 2022

The announcement follows a decline in TuSimple Holdings Inc.’s share price of 63% since March 2022. March 2022 is the month in which Hou’s tenure as CEO began.

In the position of CEO since 2022

Xiaodi Hou became CEO of the Company in 2022.

Xiaodi Hou is the Company’s co-founder and has served as the Company’s Chief Technology Officer and a member of the Company’s board of directors since the Company’s inception in 2015.

Hou was appointed President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Company’s board of directors on March 3, 2022.

Hou has more than ten years of research and development experience in computer vision and machine learning and was responsible for the Company’s new technology and advanced product development.

Hou currently holds 23 patents in the field of autonomous vehicles.

In the field of computer vision, Hou has developed leading theories in computational models for visual saliency.

Prior to founding the Company, Hou served as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Cogtu, an image recognition technology company.

Hou also serves as the reviewer of more than ten major computer vision journals and conferences.

He holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and a B.Eng in computer science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Push-out Score determined

The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding Xiaodi Hou’s move on a scale of 0 to 10.

exechange reached out to TuSimple and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.

Read the full story in the exechange report 45.2022 ($).