San Francisco, Dec 20 (IANS): TuSimple, a US-based autonomous trucking company, is reportedly planning to cut potentially at least half of its workforce next week.

According to The Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter said that the company plans to lay off its employees as it scales back efforts to build and test autonomous truck-driving systems.

People also cited that the cuts could go deeper and a staff reduction of that size would likely affect at least 700 employees.

As of June, TuSimple had 1,430 full-time employees globally.

TuSimple President and Chief Executive Cheng Lu had said that he intended "to right the ship, and this includes ensuring the company is capital efficient", according to the report.

Earlier this month, Lu sent an email to staff that said management was reviewing "our people expenses, the biggest part of our cash burn".

He advised employees to "concentrate on the task at hand", said the report.

Last week, Israeli mobile games company Playtika laid off 15 per cent of its workforce, or about 615 employees, across Europe, Israel and the US.

Last month, Carvana, a US-based online used car retailer, laid off about 1,500 employees, or 8 per cent of its workforce, as it attempts to cut costs amid weakening demand for used cars on the back of rising interest rates.