Latest news with #AuroraInnovation
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Boston Globe
Driverless semi trucks are here, with little regulation and big promises
Last month, Aurora Innovation, based in Pittsburgh, became the first company to operate a driverless 18-wheeler on an American highway, ushering in an era that could dramatically change how cargo moves across the United States. Autonomous trucks, proponents say, could solve a knot of problems facing the American shipping industry, which has struggled to recruit drivers for grueling, low-paying long-haul shifts, and which expects major growth in cargo shipment activity in the coming decades, driven by the overwhelming popularity of online shopping. Advertisement These new trucks won't need sleep, they won't speed, and they won't get road rage. They won't ride the brakes or make unnecessary lane changes, wasting fuel. And they won't need to abide by the 11-hour daily driving maximum imposed on long-haul truckers for safety reasons. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'If you're a farm that has fresh produce, the reach of your farm just expanded dramatically,' said Chris Urmson, the CEO of Aurora, who was riding in the back seat during the first run. Related : Aurora's new truck, which has already logged more than 1,000 driverless miles shuttling goods along Interstate 45 in Texas, is equipped with nearly 360-degree sensors that can detect objects 1,000 feet away. But some truckers, academics and labor groups are uneasy. They see an unregulated and risky sphere emerging, and worry that American roads could be facing a new menace. Advertisement Byron Bloch, an auto safety expert in Maryland, said that federal oversight of the new robotrucks was 'totally inadequate' and that the technology was being rushed into use with 'alarming' speed. 'My initial thought is: It's scary,' said Angela Griffin, a veteran truck driver from outside Hagerstown, Maryland. She said misting rain had caused AI-powered scanners on her semitruck to malfunction, and she worried that unpredictable traffic patterns in congested areas or challenging weather conditions could lead to catastrophic errors by unmanned trucks. Griffin recalled a particularly difficult episode: Driving down a rain-soaked Interstate 95 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, early one morning, signs directed her that the right two lanes would be blocked off because of construction. Following the signage, she moved her semi to the far left lane, but when she went around a bend, she discovered the sign was wrong: two construction trucks were parked in the left lane, she said. There was a semi on her right. Workers were in between the trucks, and there was no left shoulder. She slammed on the brakes and yelled. Her truck pulled up just in time. 'I thought for sure I was going to kill those people,' she said. 'I don't see how a driverless truck would have been able to read and recognize the threat that was imminent.' And Griffin wondered if the lack of a driver might slow the response time if an autonomous truck runs over a pedestrian, or freezes in the road and gets rear-ended. (Urmson, the Aurora chief, declined to say how many people in a remote assistance center would be assigned to each robotruck.) Advertisement Semitrucks, the skeptics note, bring dangers different from those posed by the self-driving cars that have started to take over the streets of San Francisco; Phoenix; Austin, Texas; and Las Vegas. The trucks are far heavier, and need at least a football field's length to come to a complete stop at highway speeds. Some carry flammable or hazardous materials. The rollout of robocars has itself been bumpy. In Arizona in 2018, a driverless car ran over a pedestrian walking a bicycle, killing her. In San Francisco and Austin, the vehicles have slowed emergency response times and caused accidents. With larger vehicles, the critics say, the dangers multiply. The risks seemed to crystallize on an Arizona highway in 2022, when an autonomous truck with a driver aboard veered across Route 10 and careened into a concrete barrier. (Nobody was hurt.) 'It's potentially disastrous from a safety perspective,' said John Samuelsen, head of the Transport Workers Union of America, who is also worried about trucking jobs being automated out of existence. Samuelsen appears to have public opinion on his side. A survey conducted by AAA this year found that 61% of motorists in the United States feared self-driving vehicles and that 26% were unsure about them. Just about everybody agrees on one thing. The robotrucks are coming, fast. 'Like a freaking Corvette -- doing zero to 60,' Samuelsen said. The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has projected that 13% of the heavy-duty trucks on U.S. roads will drive themselves within a decade. For now, Aurora, whose investors include Uber, has operated just two trucks without a driver -- only in good weather and during the day. And last week, Aurora said it was temporarily returning an observer to the driver's seat at the request of the truck's manufacturer. But Aurora says it plans to expand its driverless runs to at least 20 trucks by year's end, and to push into more challenging conditions. Advertisement The company is fine-tuning the technology for bad weather, and said its robotruck would drive conservatively in the rain and use blasts of high-pressure air to clean the lenses of its sensors. Runs in the snow appear more distant. (Urmson previously ran Google's self-driving car project, now known as Waymo, which has had successes in San Francisco and other cities.) At least three other companies are also developing driverless trucks. One of the companies, Kodiak Robotics, has started to use driverless trucks on dirt roads in Texas. Experts spoke highly of Aurora, describing the company as a leader in safety. But they also expressed concern about a lack of regulation. 'What Aurora's doing is being much more careful than most,' said Philip Koopman, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in autonomous vehicles. 'But there's still no requirement for independent checks and balances.' The Transportation Department, which regulates commercial trucking through its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said in a statement that 'comprehensive federal regulations specific to automated trucks are still under development.' But the department added that it was working with the trucking industry and state governments to 'modernize safety oversight.' Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, said in a statement that he welcomed the arrival of Aurora's trucks and that his state 'offers businesses the freedom to succeed.' Advertisement Although there is no federal regulatory framework in place, a number of states have considered legislation to regulate self-driving trucks. Under normal circumstances, experts said, robotrucks may prove much better at driving than humans. 'For our ordinary set of traffic crashes, automated trucking will be safer,' predicted Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who focuses on driverless vehicles, citing existing research on vehicle automation. But experts caution that it is impossible to predict how the trucks will react to circumstances their designers did not anticipate: a storm of tumbleweeds, perhaps, or a broad cyberattack that affects their systems. 'This technology is really good at things it's practiced, and really bad at things it has never seen before,' Koopman said, adding, 'From a safety point of view, nobody knows how it's going to turn out.' This article originally appeared in .
Time of India
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Yes, that 18-wheeler on a Texas highway is driving itself
The semitruck rumbled down the congested, five-lane Texas highway, letting a small sedan pass on its right, then accelerating past another semi on its left. In the back seat of the truck's sun-drenched cabin, a middle-aged man watched YouTube videos on his phone. Behind him, a 53-foot refrigerated trailer carried nearly 25,000 pounds of pastries. Nobody was in the driver's seat. Last month, Aurora Innovation, based in Pittsburgh, became the first company to operate a driverless 18-wheeler on an American highway, ushering in an era that could dramatically change how cargo moves across the United States. Autonomous trucks , proponents say, could solve a knot of problems facing the American shipping industry, which has struggled to recruit drivers for gruelling, low-paying long-haul shifts, and which expects major growth in cargo shipment activity in the coming decades, driven by the overwhelming popularity of online shopping. Live Events These new trucks won't need sleep, they won't speed, and they won't get road rage. They won't ride the brakes or make unnecessary lane changes, wasting fuel. And they won't need to abide by the 11-hour daily driving maximum imposed on long-haul truckers for safety reasons. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories "If you're a farm that has fresh produce, the reach of your farm just expanded dramatically," said Chris Urmson, the CEO of Aurora, who was riding in the back seat during the first run. Aurora's new truck, which has already logged more than 1,000 driverless miles shuttling goods along Interstate 45 in Texas, is equipped with nearly 360-degree sensors that can detect objects 1,000 feet away. But some truckers, academics and labour groups are uneasy. They see an unregulated and risky sphere emerging, and worry that American roads could be facing a new menace. Byron Bloch, an auto safety expert in Maryland, said that federal oversight of the new robotrucks was "totally inadequate" and that the technology was being rushed into use with "alarming" speed. "My initial thought is: It's scary," said Angela Griffin, a veteran truck driver from outside Hagerstown, Maryland. She said misting rain had caused AI-powered scanners on her semitruck to malfunction, and she worried that unpredictable traffic patterns in congested areas or challenging weather conditions could lead to catastrophic errors by unmanned trucks. Griffin recalled a particularly difficult episode: Driving down a rain-soaked Interstate 95 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, early one morning, signs directed her that the right two lanes would be blocked off because of construction. Following the signage, she moved her semi to the far left lane, but when she went around a bend, she discovered the sign was wrong: two construction trucks were parked in the left lane, she said. There was a semi on her right. Workers were in between the trucks, and there was no left shoulder. She slammed on the brakes and yelled. Her truck pulled up just in time. "I thought for sure I was going to kill those people," she said. "I don't see how a driverless truck would have been able to read and recognise the threat that was imminent." And Griffin wondered if the lack of a driver might slow the response time if an autonomous truck runs over a pedestrian, or freezes in the road and gets rear-ended. (Urmson, the Aurora chief, declined to say how many people in a remote assistance centre would be assigned to each robotruck.) Semitrucks, the sceptics note, bring dangers different from those posed by the self-driving cars that have started to take over the streets of San Francisco; Phoenix; Austin, Texas; and Las Vegas. The trucks are far heavier, and need at least a football field's length to come to a complete stop at highway speeds. Some carry flammable or hazardous materials. The rollout of robocars has itself been bumpy. In Arizona in 2018, a driverless car ran over a pedestrian walking a bicycle, killing her. In San Francisco and Austin, the vehicles have slowed emergency response times and caused accidents. With larger vehicles, the critics say, the dangers multiply. The risks seemed to crystallise on an Arizona highway in 2022, when an autonomous truck with a driver aboard veered across Route 10 and careened into a concrete barrier. (Nobody was hurt.) "It's potentially disastrous from a safety perspective," said John Samuelsen, head of the Transport Workers Union of America , who is also worried about trucking jobs being automated out of existence. Samuelsen appears to have public opinion on his side. A survey conducted by AAA this year found that 61% of motorists in the United States feared self-driving vehicles and that 26% were unsure about them. Urmson, the Aurora chief, vowed that his trucks would be safe. "We have something like 2.7 million tests that we run the system through," he said. And he said they would not displace truckers, citing growing demand and an ageing workforce. "It is a noble job," he said of trucking. "That said, people don't particularly want to do it anymore." The safety concerns are not universal among truckers. Gary Buchs of Colfax, Illinois, who has been driving big rigs since the 1980s, said he expected driverless trucks would be safer and more predictable. He doubted they would eradicate trucking jobs. "I think the growth of jobs will outpace the addition of autonomous trucks," Buchs said, predicting that for any lost long-haul trucking jobs, there would be new, higher-quality careers for shorter deliveries. "Younger people want the jobs changed." Just about everybody agrees on one thing. The robotrucks are coming, fast. "Like a freaking Corvette — doing zero to 60," Samuelsen said. The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has projected that 13% of the heavy-duty trucks on U.S. roads will drive themselves within a decade. For now, Aurora, whose investors include Uber , has operated just two trucks without a driver -- only in good weather and during the day. And last week, Aurora said it was temporarily returning an observer to the driver's seat at the request of the truck's manufacturer. But Aurora says it plans to expand its driverless runs to at least 20 trucks by year's end, and to push into more challenging conditions. The company is fine-tuning the technology for bad weather, and said its robotruck would drive conservatively in the rain and use blasts of high-pressure air to clean the lenses of its sensors. Runs in the snow appear more distant. (Urmson previously ran Google's self-driving car project, now known as Waymo, which has had successes in San Francisco and other cities.) At least three other companies are also developing driverless trucks. One of the companies, Kodiak Robotics , has started to use driverless trucks on dirt roads in Texas. Experts spoke highly of Aurora, describing the company as a leader in safety. But they also expressed concern about a lack of regulation. "What Aurora's doing is being much more careful than most," said Philip Koopman, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specialises in autonomous vehicles. "But there's still no requirement for independent checks and balances." The Transportation Department , which regulates commercial trucking through its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said in a statement that "comprehensive federal regulations specific to automated trucks are still under development." But the department added that it was working with the trucking industry and state governments to "modernise safety oversight." Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, said in a statement that he welcomed the arrival of Aurora's trucks and that his state "offers businesses the freedom to succeed." Although there is no federal regulatory framework in place, a number of states have considered legislation to regulate self-driving trucks. Under normal circumstances, experts said, robotrucks may prove much better at driving than humans. "For our ordinary set of traffic crashes, automated trucking will be safer," predicted Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who focuses on driverless vehicles, citing existing research on vehicle automation. But experts caution that it is impossible to predict how the trucks will react to circumstances their designers did not anticipate: a storm of tumbleweeds, perhaps, or a broad cyberattack that affects their systems. "This technology is really good at things it's practised, and really bad at things it has never seen before," Koopman said, adding, "From a safety point of view, nobody knows how it's going to turn out."
New York Times
6 days ago
- Automotive
- New York Times
Yes, That 18-Wheeler on a Texas Highway Is Driving Itself
The semi truck rumbled down the congested, five-lane Texas highway, letting a small sedan pass on its right, then accelerating past another semi on its left. In the back seat of the truck's sun-drenched cabin, a middle-aged man watched YouTube videos on his phone. Behind him, a 53-foot refrigerated trailer carried nearly 25,000 pounds of pastries. Nobody was in the driver's seat. Last month, Aurora Innovation, based in Pittsburgh, became the first company to operate a driverless 18-wheeler on an American highway, ushering in an era that could dramatically change how cargo moves across the United States. Autonomous trucks, proponents say, could solve a knot of problems facing the American shipping industry, which has struggled to recruit drivers for grueling, low-paying long-haul shifts, and which expects major growth in cargo shipment activity in the coming decades, driven by the overwhelming popularity of online shopping. These new trucks won't need sleep, they won't speed, and they won't get road rage. They won't ride the brakes or make unnecessary lane changes, wasting fuel. And they won't need to abide by the 11-hour daily driving maximum imposed on long-haul truckers for safety reasons. 'If you're a farm that has fresh produce, the reach of your farm just expanded dramatically,' said Chris Urmson, the chief executive of Aurora, who was riding in the back seat during the first run. Aurora's new truck, which has already logged more than 1,000 driverless miles shuttling goods along Interstate 45 in Texas, is equipped with nearly 360-degree sensors that can detect objects 1,000 feet away. But some truckers, academics and labor groups are uneasy. They see an unregulated and risky sphere emerging, and worry that American roads could be facing a new menace. Byron Bloch, an auto safety expert in Maryland, said that federal oversight of the new robotrucks was 'totally inadequate' and that the technology was being rushed into use with 'alarming' speed. 'My initial thought is: It's scary,' said Angela Griffin, a veteran truck driver from outside Hagerstown, Md. She said misting rain had caused A.I.-powered scanners on her semi truck to malfunction, and she worried that unpredictable traffic patterns in congested areas or challenging weather conditions could lead to catastrophic errors by unmanned trucks. Ms. Griffin recalled a particularly difficult episode: Driving down a rain-soaked Interstate 95 in Fredericksburg, Va., early one morning, signs directed her that the right two lanes would be blocked off because of construction. Following the signage, she moved her semi to the far left lane, but when she went around a bend, she discovered the sign was wrong: two construction trucks were parked in the left lane, she said. There was a semi on her right. Workers were in between the trucks, and there was no left shoulder. She slammed on the brakes and yelled. Her truck pulled up just in time. 'I thought for sure I was going to kill those people,' she said. 'I don't see how a driverless truck would have been able to read and recognize the threat that was imminent.' And Ms. Griffin wondered if the lack of a driver might slow the response time if an autonomous truck runs over a pedestrian, or freezes in the road and gets rear-ended. (Mr. Urmson, the Aurora chief, declined to say how many people in a remote assistance center would be assigned to each robotruck.) Semi trucks, the skeptics note, bring dangers different from those posed by the self-driving cars that have started to take over the streets of San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin and Las Vegas. The trucks are far heavier, and need at least a football field's length to come to a complete stop at highway speeds. Some carry flammable or hazardous materials. The rollout of robocars has itself been bumpy. In Arizona in 2018, a driverless car ran over a pedestrian walking a bicycle, killing her. In San Francisco and Austin, the vehicles have slowed emergency response times and caused accidents. With larger vehicles, the critics say, the dangers multiply. The risks seemed to crystallize on an Arizona highway in 2022, when an autonomous truck with a driver aboard veered across Route 10 and careened into a concrete barrier. (Nobody was hurt.) 'It's potentially disastrous from a safety perspective,' said John Samuelsen, head of the Transport Workers Union of America, who is also worried about trucking jobs being automated out of existence. Mr. Samuelsen appears to have public opinion on his side. A survey conducted by AAA this year found that 61 percent of motorists in the United States feared self-driving vehicles and that 26 percent were unsure about them. Mr. Urmson, the Aurora chief, vowed that his trucks would be safe. 'We have something like 2.7 million tests that we run the system through,' he said. And he said they would not displace truckers, citing growing demand and an aging work force. 'It is a noble job,' he said of trucking. 'That said, people don't particularly want to do it anymore.' The safety concerns are not universal among truckers. Gary Buchs of Colfax, Ill., who has been driving big rigs since the 1980s, said he expected driverless trucks would be safer and more predictable. He doubted they would eradicate trucking jobs. 'I think the growth of jobs will outpace the addition of autonomous trucks,' Mr. Buchs said, predicting that for any lost long-haul trucking jobs, there would be new, higher-quality careers for shorter deliveries. 'Younger people want the jobs changed.' Just about everybody agrees on one thing. The robotrucks are coming, fast. 'Like a freaking Corvette — doing zero to 60,' Mr. Samuelsen said. The consulting firm McKinsey & Company has projected that 13 percent of the heavy-duty trucks on U.S. roads will drive themselves within a decade. For now, Aurora, whose investors include Uber, has operated just two trucks without a driver — only in good weather and during the day. And last week, Aurora said it was temporarily returning an observer to the driver's seat at the request of the truck's manufacturer. But Aurora says it plans to expand its driverless runs to at least 20 trucks by year's end, and to push into more challenging conditions. The company is fine-tuning the technology for bad weather, and said its robotruck would drive conservatively in the rain and use blasts of high-pressure air to clean the lenses of its sensors. Runs in the snow appear more distant. (Mr. Urmson previously ran Google's self-driving car project, now known as Waymo, which has had successes in San Francisco and other cities.) At least three other companies are also developing driverless trucks. One of the companies, Kodiak Robotics, has started to use driverless trucks on dirt roads in Texas. Experts spoke highly of Aurora, describing the company as a leader in safety. But they also expressed concern about a lack of regulation. 'What Aurora's doing is being much more careful than most,' said Philip Koopman, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in autonomous vehicles. 'But there's still no requirement for independent checks and balances.' The Transportation Department, which regulates commercial trucking through its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said in a statement that 'comprehensive federal regulations specific to automated trucks are still under development.' But the department added that it was working with the trucking industry and state governments to 'modernize safety oversight.' Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, said in a statement that he welcomed the arrival of Aurora's trucks and that his state 'offers businesses the freedom to succeed.' Although there is no federal regulatory framework in place, a number of states have considered legislation to regulate self-driving trucks. Under normal circumstances, experts said, robotrucks may prove much better at driving than humans. 'For our ordinary set of traffic crashes, automated trucking will be safer,' predicted Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who focuses on driverless vehicles, citing existing research on vehicle automation. But experts caution that it is impossible to predict how the trucks will react to circumstances their designers did not anticipate: a storm of tumbleweeds, perhaps, or a broad cyberattack that affects their systems. 'This technology is really good at things it's practiced, and really bad at things it has never seen before,' Professor Koopman said, adding, 'From a safety point of view, nobody knows how it's going to turn out.'
Axios
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Axios
Tesla's robotaxi plan attracts federal safety scrutiny
Public trust in self-driving vehicles is critical, but without federal standards, companies in the sector get to decide what to share about the safety of their technology, with varying levels of transparency. As Tesla gears up to launch robotaxis next month in Austin, Texas, there are still plenty of outstanding questions. Why it matters: Even if you're personally not ready to ride in the back seat of a robotaxi, everyone will be sharing the road with them soon enough. People want assurances that cars with no one behind the wheel will behave predictably and safely. The big picture: AV companies use various tactics to build public trust. Months before launching the first driverless semi-trucks in Texas last month, Aurora Innovation shared details of its safety case framework. Gatik enlisted a third-party auditor to validate safety claims about its automated trucks and named an independent safety advisory council. Waymo regularly releases independent, peer-reviewed research analyzing the safety of its robotaxis. Tesla's website shares safety performance data about its assisted-driving system, but as with most companies, the data is selective, safety experts say. "There are different degrees of transparency, but as a professor, I would never give anyone higher than a C," said Missy Cummings, director of George Mason University's Autonomy and Robotics Center and a former official at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Driving the news: Tesla CEO Elon Musk told CNBC Tuesday the company is on track to launch a modest fleet of 10 or 12 robotaxis in Austin next month. "We will have to see how well it does. But I think it's prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well, and then scale it up proportionate to how well we see it's doing," Musk said. By the end of 2026, Musk said he expects one million self-driving Teslas, whose owners could choose to add them to the robotaxi network to earn money when not in use. Yes, but: Some AV experts question whether Tesla's system — which relies on AI and a handful of inexpensive cameras, rather than a suite of redundant sensors — will be able to handle unexpected situations. NHTSA is already investigating collisions involving Tesla's current assisted-driving technology (called FSD Supervised, short for "full self-driving"), to determine if the system can get blinded by sun glare, fog or airborne dust. That tech is the foundation for its future driverless system, Tesla says. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Zoom in: In a letter earlier this month, Tanya Topka, the director of NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation, demanded Tesla share more details about its plans, so the agency can understand how its fully driverless robotaxis will compare to the driver-assistance products available on Tesla vehicles today. NHTSA wants to know, for example, how the vehicles will be monitored in real time, whether they can be remotely "tele-operated" by Tesla staff in case they get stuck and how robotaxis will respond to emergency vehicles. Where it stands: Tesla says it is still working through a "big list of issues" to reduce the number of times backup safety drivers have to take control of the wheel during pre-launch testing. "We are aware of the interventions that are that's why we are hardcore burning it down," Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's director of Autopilot software, told investors on an April 22 earnings call. Musk told CNBC Tuesday that remote monitors will be "extremely paranoid" in their oversight, but stopped short of confirming whether they will be capable of taking control of vehicles remotely. Waymo has a remote response team to guide its robotaxis through decision-making when necessary, but they do not operate the vehicle from afar. What to watch: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNBC the AV industry needs to be more transparent. "We don't want to punish them. We want to give them better rules." The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association — of which Tesla is not a member — wants federal guidelines for autonomous vehicles, and is also calling for a national safety data repository on crashes involving self-driving cars.
Bloomberg
20-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Uber Offers $1 Billion of Exchangeable Bonds Tied to Aurora
Uber Technologies Inc. is offering $1 billion of senior notes exchangeable into shares of self-driving truck technology firm Aurora Innovation Inc. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company is marketing the notes to investors with zero coupon, according to people familiar with the matter. Uber is offering a conversion premium of 10% to 15% on the notes, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn't public.
