Latest news with #ChrisUrmson
New York Post
5 days ago
- Automotive
- New York Post
Aurora driverless trucks have logged 1,200 miles in Texas
Aurora has quietly notched a major milestone in the race to commercialize autonomous vehicles, launching a fully driverless trucking service that has already logged more than 1,200 miles on public highways in Texas. The company's 18-wheelers have been shuttling frozen pastries while operating without a human in the cab along a stretch of Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston, marking a turning point for both the freight industry and the future of automated transport. Aurora's launch on April 27 followed four years of on-road testing with safety drivers and the completion of a rigorous 'safety case' — an evidence-based analysis used to justify the system's readiness for public deployment, according to the New York Times. Advertisement 4 Aurora, the Pittsburgh-based self-driving truck startup, says its trucks have logged 1,200 driverless miles in Texas. AP Since then, the company says its Aurora Driver system has completed more than 1,200 fully autonomous miles with freight partners Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines. 'This was a surreal moment,' Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson, who rode in the back seat during the inaugural round-trip haul, wrote in a blog entry. 'I'm cruising down the highway at 65 miles per hour, not behind the wheel, but in the rear seat, watching the scenery unfold as a truckload of pastries are driven by the technology I helped create… And yet, it's all pretty boring. That's exactly the way it should be.' Advertisement Urmson, a former leader of Google's self-driving car project, said Aurora's trucks are outfitted with a 360-degree sensor suite capable of detecting objects from up to 1,000 feet away. The system is designed to drive cautiously, obeying speed limits, avoiding aggressive maneuvers and using air bursts to keep sensors clean in rain. For now, the vehicles only operate during daylight hours and in good weather, though Aurora intends to expand routes to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025. Advertisement 4 Aurora 18-wheelers have been shuttling frozen pastries while operating without a human in the cab along a stretch of Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston. Aurora Still, the rapid rollout has raised alarms among safety experts, labor advocates and even seasoned truckers. 'My initial thought is: It's scary,' Angela Griffin, a veteran driver who has experienced firsthand how weather and construction zones can confuse even human drivers, told the Times. 'I don't see how a driverless truck would have been able to read and recognize the threat that was imminent.' Advertisement Regulatory oversight of autonomous trucks remains limited. 4 Aurora's launch on April 27 followed four years of on-road testing with safety drivers and the completion of a rigorous 'safety case' Aurora The Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has yet to issue comprehensive rules specific to automated freight, though it says it is 'actively working' with state governments and industry stakeholders to modernize safety protocols. Some experts worry that states like Texas — which welcomes innovation with fewer restrictions — could become testing grounds for unproven tech. 'There's still no requirement for independent checks and balances,' Philip Koopman, an autonomous vehicle safety researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, told the Times. 'Aurora's being more cautious than most, but the regulatory structure simply isn't there yet.' Despite these concerns, some industry veterans believe automation could ultimately make roads safer. 4 'This was a surreal moment,' Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson, who rode in the back seat during the inaugural round-trip haul, wrote in a blog entry. Aurora Advertisement 'I think the growth of jobs will outpace the addition of autonomous trucks,' said Gary Buchs, a longtime driver who now supports autonomous technologies. 'Younger people want the jobs changed.' Aurora insists its technology is not designed to replace human drivers, but to meet rising demand for freight and address labor shortages. 'It is a noble job,' Urmson said. 'That said, people don't particularly want to do it anymore.' Advertisement With only two trucks currently running driver-free — and with an observer temporarily reinstated at the truck manufacturer's request — Aurora's rollout is still in its early stages. The company has plans to scale to at least 20 trucks this year.
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.'
Mint
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Mint
Driverless Trucking Firm Aurora Puts Human Back in Driver's Seat
(Bloomberg) -- Driverless vehicle developer Aurora Innovation Inc. is putting a human back in front of the wheel of big rigs operating in Texas, reversing course less than three weeks after the company began commercial autonomous service there. The decision to move an 'observer' from the rear of the cabin into the driver's seat was made at the request of PACCAR Inc., which manufactured the trucks, Aurora Chief Executive Officer Chris Urmson said Friday in a post on the company's website. The trucks will still be operated by the Aurora Driver autonomous system, but the person will be able to intervene if needed. 'We are confident this is not required to operate the truck safely based on the exhaustive testing (covering nearly 10,000 requirements and 2.7 million tests) and analysis that populates our safety case,' Urmson wrote of having a human in the front seat. 'PACCAR is a long-time partner and, after much consideration, we respected their request.' Aurora said on May 1 that it began commercial trucking services in Texas with two fully driverless vehicles, both built by PACCAR. It was Aurora's first commercial self-driving service on public roads. The company plans to expand to El Paso, Texas, and Phoenix by the end of the year. Friday's post suggests the companies disagreed about the need for a human to safeguard against issues that might arise in the early days of the commercial driverless service. PACCAR requested the change because of certain prototype parts in the trucks, Urmson said. A PACCAR spokesman did not return a request seeking comment. A short seller report by Bleecker Street Research on May 14 said Aurora had not yet obtained PACCAR's permission to commercialize its trucks with autonomous driving and that heavy truck manufacturer thinks it will take longer for the technology to be ready. A spokesperson for Aurora declined to comment on the report. Aurora has lost key executives over the past year. General Motors Co. said this week that Aurora co-founder and Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson is taking the same title at the automaker. General Counsel Nolan Shenai left around the start of the year and Yanbing Li, who was senior vice president of engineering, departed Aurora in August to join Datadog Inc. --With assistance from Ed Ludlow. More stories like this are available on
