(Yicai Global) June 6 -- Chinese autonomous driving truck startup TuSimple Holdings announced it will enter the Japanese market to help alleviate the driver shortage facing the freight industry in the country amid an aging population.

TuSimple carried out self-driving tests on the Tomei Expressway which connects Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, the San Diego-based company said in a statement on its official WeChat account today.

Over 45 percent of drivers in Japan's transportation sector were aged over 50 last year, TuSimple noted, citing Japanese government figures. According to an official plan, Japan’s government will build autonomous driving lanes on some sections of the Tomei Expressway next year, the firm added.

Popularizing autonomous driving will effectively alleviate the shortage of drivers in the Japanese logistics industry, TuSimple's Chief Executive Officer Lu Cheng said. The company will actively cooperate with Japanese partners to provide safe, energy-saving, and efficient self-driving truck solutions, Lu noted.

TuSimple has been in the red since its establishment in 2015. It listed in New York in April 2021. Its stock [NASDAQ: TSP] closed at USD2.02 yesterday, down 95 from its offering price of USD40. The firm was supposed to be delisted on May 15, but won a temporary reprieve from Nasdaq.

Last December, TuSimple announced it would lay off 25 percent of its staff in the United States. On May 18, it announced a restructuring of its US operations that would see about a further 30 percent of its workers in the US let go.

As of March, TuSimple's total mileage tested, developed, and commercialized exceeded 16 million kilometers, the company’s latest data showed.

Editor: Futura Costaglione