By Michael Elkins
TuSimple (NASDAQ:TSP), an autonomous truck company headquartered in California, announced via a securities filing on Tuesday that James Mullen would be stepping down as the company’s Authorized Chief.
TuSimple and several executives, together with Mullen, are listed as defendants in a civil grievance filed Aug. 31 by shareholder Austin Dicker in a federal district court docket in San Diego. The lawsuit stems from an incident involving a Level 4 truck seen veering into a highway median, coming close to hitting nearby vehicles. The incident sent stock prices down by about 10%.
“I can unequivocally state that my departure has no connection, correlation, or is any manner associated to the lawsuit introduced by Austin Dicker,” Mullen mentioned in an e-mail.
Dicker’s lawsuit accuses TuSimple and underwriters for the corporate’s IPO of failing to reveal that the corporate “was speeding the testing of its autonomous driving know-how in an effort to ship driverless vehicles to the market forward of its extra safety-conscious rivals.”
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association contends that the technology and infrastructure are not anywhere close to where they would need to be for truly “driverless” trucks to take the road.
Susan Marsch will serve as interim general counsel, effective Sept. 6, until a permanent successor is appointed.