Aurora Innovation Inc. has launched its commercial self-driving trucking service in Texas. Following the closure of its safety case, Aurora began regular driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston this week. The Aurora Driver is an SAE L4 self-driving system that is first being deployed in long-haul trucking, with plans to expand the service to El Paso, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona, by the end of 2025. To date, the Aurora Driver has completed over 1,200 miles without a driver.
“We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly and broadly. Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads,” said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora. “Riding in the back seat for our inaugural trip was an honor of a lifetime; the Aurora Driver performed perfectly, and it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
“Our commitment to building a transformative technology, earning trust and assembling a strong ecosystem of customers and partners have made this pivotal milestone possible,” he added.
Building Trust in the Aurora Driver
Prior to driverless operations, Aurora closed its safety case, which is how the company assembled evidence to show its product is acceptably safe for public roads. The company also released a Driverless Safety Report, which includes details about the Aurora Driver’s operating domain for initial operations, along with Aurora’s approach to cybersecurity, remote assistance and more safety-critical topics.
Aurora has collaborated with elected officials, government agencies and safety organizations during the launch and testing of the trucks.
Most US states allow for driverless vehicles, including Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Aurora has said it will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure there is visibility into the company’s progress as it opens new routes.
Safely deploying the Aurora Driver
The Aurora Driver is equipped with a computer and sensors that can see beyond the length of four American football fields. Aurora reports that the driver has delivered more than 10,000 customer loads across three million autonomous miles over four years of supervised pilot hauls. During this time, the system is said to have demonstrated versatile capabilities, including predicting red-light runners, avoiding collisions and detecting pedestrians in the dark from a distance of hundreds of meters away.
Aurora’s Verifiable AI blends powerful learning models with guardrails to help ensure the rules of the road are followed and it played a critical role in enabling the company to close its driverless safety case.
Aurora’s launch trucks are equipped with the Aurora Driver hardware kit and numerous redundant systems, including braking, steering, power, sensing, controls, computing, cooling and communication, enabling them to safely operate without a human driver.
Transforming how goods are moved in America
Aurora’s launch customers are Uber Freight, an enterprise technology company powering intelligent logistics, and Hirschbach Motor Lines, a carrier that delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight. Both companies have had long-standing supervised commercial pilots with Aurora.
“When Uber Freight and Aurora came together more than four years ago, we set out to transform the future of logistics, and today, that future is here,” said Lior Ron, founder and CEO of Uber Freight.
“Aurora’s transparent, safety-focused approach to delivering autonomous technology has always given me confidence they’re doing this the right way,” said Richard Stocking, CEO of Hirschbach Motor Lines.
In related news, Autonomous driving software specialist Tier IV recently completed test runs on a new priority lane for autonomous trucks on the Shin-Tomei Expressway in Japan with support from Yamato Multi Charter and Suzuyo Cargo-Net. Click here to read the full story.