Aurora‘s first driverless truck has just been spotted on public roads in Texas, and right after that, the company is actually announcing the start of driverless and commercial freight operations with trucks. In the May 1 press release, the Mountain View, California-based startup wrote:
Aurora began regular driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston this week. To date, the Aurora Driver has completed over 1,200 miles without a driver. The milestone makes Aurora the first company to operate a commercial self-driving service with heavy-duty trucks on public roads. Aurora plans to expand its driverless service to El Paso, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona by the end of 2025.[..]
Aurora’s flagship product, the Aurora Driver, is an SAE L4 self-driving system that is first being deployed in long-haul trucking. Trucking is a trillion dollar industry in the U.S. but it faces challenges, including an aging driver population with high turnover rates, skyrocketing operating costs, and underutilized assets. These intensify every year, making the value proposition of autonomy – a solution that will offer safe, reliable capacity without an impact to jobs – highly attractive to the trucking industry.
Aurora’s launch customers are Uber Freight, a market-leading enterprise technology company powering intelligent logistics, and Hirschbach Motor Lines, a veteran-owned carrier that delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight. Both companies have had long-standing supervised commercial pilots with Aurora.
The full press release is available here.
This article was also published in German.
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