Latest news with #AuroraInnovation
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Aurora begins nighttime driverless operations
This story was originally published on Trucking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Trucking Dive newsletter. Aurora Innovation began nighttime driverless operations in July, the company said on a Q2 earnings call last week. The expansion comes as the tech company seeks to scale operations. The company said in a shareholder letter that nighttime driving 'more than doubles truck utilization potential.' Aurora commenced driverless operations in Q2 but added a front-seat observer at the request of a partner, Paccar, co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson said. That decision was connected with Paccar's process and concern over prototype parts being in the trucks. The companies have been working for years together through a strategic partnership to develop the technology on Paccar trucks. Even though a person is still present on the vehicle, the technology can maneuver the trucks without interventions, Aurora noted. Another milestone in Q2 involved earning its first revenue. 'With the launch of driverless operations during the second quarter of 2025, we began recognizing revenue, which totaled $1 million across driverless and vehicle operator supervised commercial loads for Hirschbach, Uber Freight, Werner, FedEx, Schneider and Volvo Autonomous Solutions, among others,' CFO David Maday said on the call. Aurora also expanded its driverless operations to three trucks in July, operating between Dallas and Houston. The approximately 200-mile trip takes about three hours to complete one way, and those trucks haul freight for customers Hirschbach and Uber Freight seven days a week both day and night, the company said in an email. '[Although] an observer is present, we're running that software as if there's nobody behind the wheel, which is different from what our Vehicle Operators are doing on development runs, like on our Phoenix route,' a spokesperson told Trucking Dive in an email. Meanwhile, Aurora is also evaluating its autonomous tech with a vehicle operator on board on additional routes from Fort Worth to El Paso, Texas; El Paso to Phoenix; and Fort Worth to Phoenix. The tech company expects to unlock driverless lanes for those additional routes all by the end of 2025, Urmson said on the call. Aurora also anticipates using the technology on vehicles in the rain in that same timeframe. Recommended Reading Aurora changes where humans ride during driverless hauls in Texas Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aurora Innovation (AUR) To Release its FQ2 2025 Earnings On July 30
Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) is one of the Best Tech Stocks to Buy Under $20. On July 9, Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) announced its fiscal second quarter 2025 earnings release date. The company will hold its earnings call on July 30, 2025. The company released important updates during the fiscal first quarter of 2025, noting that it has closed all remaining software and vehicle claims, achieving ARM 100%, meaning that its AI for driverless operations has been validated and approved. Management noted that two driverless trucks run daily between Dallas and Houston, highlighting that they have completed over 4,000 fully driverless miles. The company expects more customers to join in the coming months, with tens of trucks on the road by the end of 2025. A closeup of a self-driving hardware unit inside the dashboard of a passenger vehicle. Management of Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) noted that although they started recognizing pilot revenue in Q1, they have only started recognizing broader revenue linked to their commercial driverless operations starting Q2 2025. This revenue will be available as the company reports its second-quarter results. The company ended the fiscal first quarter with $1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments, and management expects this gives the company a smooth runway to fund operations through Q4 2026. Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) is a tech company that develops the Aurora Driver, an advanced self-driving system designed to operate various vehicle types. While we acknowledge the potential of AUR as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
New York Post
31-07-2025
- Automotive
- New York Post
Robo trucks take major step forward for tech in Texas
Self-driving tractor trailers are rumbling down Texas highways to haul cargo at night — a major step forward for the technology. The autonomous 18-wheelers — which still carry a driver behind the wheel — have been making the roughly four-trip between Dallas and Houston to transport food and dairy products, the Wall Street Journal reported. Aurora Innovation, a startup, said it was able to achieve driverless trucking after dark because of its LiDAR system, which casts laser beams to see items in 3D and measure the distance to those objects. 3 A self-driving tractor trailer on a test track in Pittsburgh in March 2024. AP The system used in the Aurora Driver is able to identify objects in the dark as far away as the length of three football fields, the company said Wednesday. That allows the trucks to spot pedestrians, other vehicles and debris on the road about 11 seconds quicker than a human driver. The technology is a crucial component of self-driving cars from brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo, as well as Waymo robotaxis, which have been operating around the clock in busy cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles for years. Until recently, autonomous trucks have only operated on roads while it's light out with good weather, fearful of risks that could arise amid more complex driving conditions. But operators of the robo-trucks claim the LIDAR system is more reliable than human drivers, who could be sleepy and distracted behind the wheel after cross-country routes. The nighttime capabilities are quite an accomplishment since 'it's even harder than it is during the daytime to be able to disambiguate, say, a person versus a piece of tire on a freeway,' Aurora CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson told the Journal. Critics have argued that autonomous trucks come with steep risks, such as handling traffic, bad weather and unexpected blockages in the road. 'Maybe they are good for less populated areas,' truck driver Troy Turnham told the Journal. 3 Aurora Innovation said it reached a new milestone with its LiDAR system. AP 'I'm not sure I would trust being around them when a severe storm hits, nor in the winter.' Kodiak Robotics has also started operating driverless trucks at night in parts of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Five of these trucks operate on leased roads, not highways, without drivers on board to deliver loads of sand for use in fracking. The company also operates trucks in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Oklahoma City, but these vehicles have drivers on board at night. Several tests were performed before the trucks were permitted to drive at night, including test-runs with mannequins on a track. The use of the Aurora Driver has grown rapidly, completing more than 20,000 miles since it started on public roads in May across three trucks. 3 The interior of the cab of a self-driving Aurora truck. AP Now the company is testing a system between Phoenix and Fort Worth – a 16-hour route that usually requires two drivers. There are federal laws in place to regulate how much time long-haul truckers can spend on the road, placing a maximum of 11 hours behind the wheel in a 14-hour period followed by a mandatory 10-hour break. But proponents argue this could all change with autonomous trucks – allowing human drivers to take on shorter, less strenuous routes while self-driving trucks handle the long hauls, according to Richard Stocking, chief executive of Hirshback Motor Lines in Iowa. Using autonomous trucks for these less attractive routes could win over younger workers who want more of a work-life balance with more predictable schedules, he added. Human drivers could go home more often, 'if not daily, several times a week,' Stocking said.
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Aurora's autonomous trucks are now driving at night. Its next big challenge is rain.
Over the next year, Aurora Innovation CEO Chris Urmson wants to 'unlock' the Sunbelt of the United States, a southern route where its self-driving trucks will carry goods for companies like Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines. Aurora, which launched its driverless commercial self-driving truck service this spring, has already made some progress towards that goal. The company reported Wednesday in its second-quarter letter to shareholders that it now has three self-driving trucks operating commercially between Dallas and Houston and logged more than 20,000 driverless miles by the end of June. Its commercial self-driving trucks have a human 'observer' in the cab, people who are not there to operate or intervene, according to the company. Aurora has also opened up a terminal in Phoenix, another physical sign of its Sunbelt trucking route mission. Aurora is piloting autonomous trucking on a 15-hour route from its terminal in Fort Worth, Texas to Phoenix for customers, Hirschbach and Werner. The company's terminals, which are located within one to five miles from the highway, require the driverless trucks to handle exits and surface streets. But it's the company's ability to operate at night that helps it push into new territory. Aurora said Wednesday it has validated the ability for its driverless trucks to navigate highways and roads at night. This allows the trucks to travel longer distances — and importantly past the federally mandated service limitation for traditional human drivers. Truck drivers are allowed to drive up to 11 hours over a 14-hour period; and they can't do that day after day. Truck drivers are also required to take 10-hour breaks after completing a long-haul route. 'The value is really on longer lengths — so 600 miles is certainly a good range, where that is on the border of what's possible for people,' Urmson told TechCrunch in a recent interview, adding that ultimately he hopes Aurora trucks are carrying freight from Miami to California. Urmson partially credits Aurora's proprietary, long-range lidar, which can detect objects in the dark more than 450 meters away, for its ability to operate at night. The lidar can identify pedestrians, vehicles, and debris up to 11-seconds sooner than a traditional driver, according to the company. Aurora has acquired two lidar companies since it was founded in 2017. The company bought Blackmore, a Montana-based lidar startup, in May 2019 and OURS Technology in 2021. Now, Urmson and the rest of Aurora's engineers are working to validate the driverless trucks' ability to operate in rain. 'By the end of the year, we expect to be operating day, night, and in rain — if you can't drive through the rain, ultimately, it's hard to support these long operations because it's raining somewhere,' he said. Today, Aurora's development fleet does operate in the rain and well enough that Urmson noted most would wonder why the company isn't allowing its commercial trucks to do the same. Aurora has not completed the validation for that today, and 'so we're not willing to put that check mark next to it and let it go out there,' he noted. Today, the company monitors weather on its one commercial route between Dallas and Houston. If adverse weather conditions like rain suddenly arise, those trucks are able to detect this and pull themselves off the road on their own where they will wait to be rescued, Urmson said. 'This year is really about building the capability toolbox so that the vehicles can drive where they need to,' he said in a nod to the company's focus on validating driving at night and in the rain. Next year, Aurora will focus on scaling its road network, in terms of distances and its fleet. Aurora plans to have 'tens of driverless trucks' operating on public roads by the end of the year and 'hundreds' by the end of 2026. All of this, from the driverless trucks' ability to function at night and in rain to opening more routes and a with a larger fleet, will be critical if Aurora ever hopes to reach profitability. The revenue-to-net income gap today is a large one. Aurora reported revenue of $1 million in the second quarter and a net income loss of $201 million, according to its regulatory filing.
TechCrunch
31-07-2025
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Aurora's autonomous trucks are now driving at night. Its next big challenge is rain.
Over the next year, Aurora Innovation CEO Chris Urmson wants to 'unlock' the Sunbelt of the United States, a southern route where its self-driving trucks will carry goods for companies like Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines. Aurora, which launched its driverless commercial self-driving truck service this spring, has already made some progress towards that goal. The company reported Wednesday in its second-quarter letter to shareholders that it now has three self-driving trucks operating commercially between Dallas and Houston and logged more than 20,000 driverless miles by the end of June. Its commercial self-driving trucks have a human 'observer' in the cab, people who are not there to operate or intervene, according to the company. Aurora has also opened up a terminal in Phoenix, another physical sign of its Sunbelt trucking route mission. Aurora is piloting autonomous trucking on a 15-hour route from its terminal in Fort Worth, Texas to Phoenix for customers, Hirschbach and Werner. The company's terminals, which are located within one to five miles from the highway, require the driverless trucks to handle exits and surface streets. But it's the company's ability to operate at night that helps it push into new territory. Aurora said Wednesday it has validated the ability for its driverless trucks to navigate highways and roads at night. This allows the trucks to travel longer distances — and importantly past the federally mandated service limitation for traditional human drivers. Truck drivers are allowed to drive up to 11 hours over a 14-hour period; and they can't do that day after day. Truck drivers are also required to take 10-hour breaks after completing a long-haul route. 'The value is really on longer lengths — so 600 miles is certainly a good range, where that is on the border of what's possible for people,' Urmson told TechCrunch in a recent interview, adding that ultimately he hopes Aurora trucks are carrying freight from Miami to California. Urmson partially credits Aurora's proprietary, long-range lidar, which can detect objects in the dark more than 450 meters away, for its ability to operate at night. The lidar can identify pedestrians, vehicles, and debris up to 11-seconds sooner than a traditional driver, according to the company. Aurora has acquired two lidar companies since it was founded in 2017. The company bought Blackmore, a Montana-based lidar startup, in May 2019 and OURS Technology in 2021. Now, Urmson and the rest of Aurora's engineers are working to validate the driverless trucks' ability to operate in rain. 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San Francisco | REGISTER NOW 'By the end of the year, we expect to be operating day, night, and in rain — if you can't drive through the rain, ultimately, it's hard to support these long operations because it's raining somewhere,' he said. Today, Aurora's development fleet does operate in the rain and well enough that Urmson noted most would wonder why the company isn't allowing its commercial trucks to do the same. Aurora has not completed the validation for that today, and 'so we're not willing to put that check mark next to it and let it go out there,' he noted. Today, the company monitors weather on its one commercial route between Dallas and Houston. If adverse weather conditions like rain suddenly arise, those trucks are able to detect this and pull themselves off the road on their own where they will wait to be rescued, Urmson said. 'This year is really about building the capability toolbox so that the vehicles can drive where they need to,' he said in a nod to the company's focus on validating driving at night and in the rain. Next year, Aurora will focus on scaling its road network, in terms of distances and its fleet. Aurora plans to have 'tens of driverless trucks' operating on public roads by the end of the year and 'hundreds' by the end of 2026. All of this, from the driverless trucks' ability to function at night and in rain to opening more routes and a with a larger fleet, will be critical if Aurora ever hopes to reach profitability. The revenue-to-net income gap today is a large one. Aurora reported revenue of $1 million in the second quarter and a net income loss of $201 million, according to its regulatory filing.
