Latest news with #Urmson
New York Post
28-05-2025
- 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.
Axios
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Axios
Aurora's driverless trucks have a human observer behind the wheel again
Less than three weeks after Aurora Innovation made a splash with the commercial launch of the first driverless semi trucks in Texas, the company is putting a humanobserver in the driver's seat. Why it matters: The decision is another speed bump for an industry leader after a widely watched milestone, coming just days after co-founder Sterling Anderson left to take a big job at General Motors. The big picture: Aurora's autonomous technology will still do the driving, and the change won't affect the company's development plans, CEO Chris Urmson wrote in a blog post Friday. Urmson said the decision to move an "observer" from the rear of the cab into the driver's seat was made at the request of Paccar, the manufacturer of Aurora-owned Peterbilt trucks. Between the lines: Paccar wanted someone in the driver's seat "because of certain prototype parts in their base vehicle platform," Urmson wrote, without elaborating. Paccar declined to comment. "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. "Paccar is a long-time partner and, after much consideration, we respected their request." Zoom in: Per Aurora, observers had already been riding along in the back of the cab during trips expected to run into bad weather. (The Aurora Driver currently does not operate in bad weather.) Aurora says the truck would automatically pull itself to the side of the highway in such circumstances. Having someone in the back seat helps with a timely recovery because they can switch over to manual driving mode to complete the trip. The intrigue: A short-seller's report by Bleecker Street Research, dated May 14, suggested Aurora and Paccar weren't on the same page about the timing of the "driver-out" commercial launch. Indeed, the Peterbilt logo had been removed or covered in photos Aurora provided to mark the April 27 launch. Aurora noted that for the time being, it owns and operates its trucks, and validated and approved them for driverless operations. Eventually, it will evolve to a subscription model, where Aurora will get paid by the mile for trucks equipped with the Aurora Driver that are sold by manufacturing partners like Paccar to carrier customers. Aurora has driven over 6,000 driverless miles in its company-owned trucks as of last week, per the company. By the numbers: Aurora stock is down nearly 25% in the last five trading sessions, following Anderson's departure and the Bleecker report, though it's still up more than 120% over the last year. What we're watching: Bleecker's analysis suggests Aurora faces difficulties as it tries to scale its autonomous technology over the next few years with Paccar and its other manufacturing partner, Volvo Trucks. "We are making significant progress towards driverless technology and will remove the safety driver only when we have thoroughly evaluated all factors and deem it appropriate," Volvo spokesperson Ceren Wende told Axios.
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
Forbes
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
End Of The Beginning: Aurora Launches Commercial Driverless Trucks
Aurora's first-ever driverless truck runs shown from the perspective inside the cab. Aurora Innovation, Inc. announced today that the company has launched its commercial self-driving trucking service in Texas. This is a major milestone for on-road autonomy, at the same significance as Waymo's 2018 debut of driverless services for people transport. Aurora's journey started a year earlier, founded by veterans of the self-driving scene. The challenges of operating a tractor-trailer hauling up to 80,000 pounds of cargo at highway speeds have been daunting. More than a few companies tried and failed. Following the closure of its safety case, Aurora is now running regular driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston. 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. '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,' added Urmson. Transforming Long-Haul 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 mammoth 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 factors intensify every year, making the value proposition of autonomy a compelling solution that will offer safe, reliable freight capacity to the trucking industry. Aurora emphasizes that this will occur 'without an impact to jobs,' citing a 2021 USDOT study which is seen as the most thorough treatment of this topic. Aurora's launch customers are Uber Freight, an enterprise technology company powering intelligent logistics, and Hirschbach Motor Lines, which 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. "Moving autonomous commercial freight without anyone behind the wheel is a historic step forward in our mission to build a smarter and more efficient supply chain, and one we're proud to lead alongside Aurora.' '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. 'Transforming an old school industry like trucking is never easy, but we can't ignore the safety and efficiency benefits this technology can deliver. Autonomous trucks aren't just going to help grow our business – they're also going to give our drivers better lives by handling the lengthier and less desirable routes.' 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. Safety cases are an essential tool for any company deploying autonomous vehicle technology as they promote transparency and build trust with regulators and the public. 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 states that it prioritizes consistent transparency and collaboration with elected officials, government agencies, and safety organizations. Entities that were briefed on the Aurora Driver's readiness for driverless operations include two agencies within USDOT (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), the National Transportation Safety Board, and key entities in Texas at the state and local levels. Texas Governor Greg Abbott commented on Aurora's commercial launch, saying, 'These new, autonomous semis on the I-45 corridor will efficiently move products, create jobs, and help make our roadways safer. Texas offers businesses the freedom to succeed, and the Aurora Driver will further spur economic growth and job creation in Texas.' Noting that most U.S. states today allow for driverless vehicles, including Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, Aurora notes that as the company opens new routes, it will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure there is visibility into the company's progress. Safely Deploying the Aurora Driver Aurora notes that the Aurora Driver is equipped with a powerful computer and sensors that can see beyond the length of four football fields, enabling it to safely operate on the highway. In over four years of supervised pilot hauls, the Aurora Driver has delivered over 10,000 customer loads across three million autonomous miles. For those of us who have been engaged in the driverless vehicle journey, these are truly amazing numbers. Aurora has highlighted the sophistication of its robo-driver in challenging situations, including predicting red light runners, avoiding collisions, and detecting pedestrians in the dark hundreds of meters away. Aurora's Verifiable AI approach to autonomy blends powerful learning models with guardrails to help ensure the rules of the road are followed, like yielding for emergency vehicles. Verifiable AI also played a critical role in enabling Aurora to close its driverless safety case, as it enables the company to examine and validate the Aurora Driver's decision making. 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. The truck platform was validated and approved by Aurora for driverless operations on public roads. Aurora believes working with manufacturing partners is the only way to deploy self-driving trucks at scale and continues to make progress with its partners on purpose-built driverless platforms designed for high-volume production. Aurora is working with companies across the transportation ecosystem, including Continental, FedEx, Hirschbach, NVIDIA, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner. Photo's of the autonomy launch vehicle shows a truck that has the distinctive grill of a Peterbilt vehicle from PACCAR, even though the logo is camouflaged. Aurora noted that more details will be shared about its launch and ongoing commercial operations at its upcoming Q1 business review on May 8. Based on earlier statements made by Aurora, the trucks running now have been upfitted with autonomy gear and computing power onto an autonomy-ready truck, i.e. one which has redundant systems (brakes, steering, compute, and more) provided by the truck manufacturer. 2025: More To Come More autonomy excitement is expected later this year. Bot Auto and Waabi have both announced driverless freight runs later this year, running long-haul tractor trailer routes. Gatik has announced the beginning of driverless freight runs in short-haul B2B setting, using Isuzu Trucks. The 'end game' to really start the transition to autonomy-based road freight is for all equipment to be integrated on the factory assembly line. Aurora has said this will occur in 2027. Plus and Torc also state that factory-built systems will be rolling out of factories in 2027. Plus is working with TRATON and Iveco, and Torc is working with Daimler Trucks. Aurora's launch is the end of a long beginning. Now comes the challenging journey to build a profitable business for the long run. This hyperlapse video shows the entire Dallas to Houston run from a vantage point inside the truck cab. Disclosure: Richard Bishop is an Advisor to and/or an equity holder in the following companies mentioned in this article: Aurora, Gatik, Plus, Waymo (Alphabet).
Axios
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- Axios
With a load of pastries, Aurora hits driverless truck milestone in Texas
Aurora Innovation said Thursday it has successfully launched a commercial self-driving trucking service in Texas, a milestone for the autonomous vehicle industry that came with a load of frozen pastries. Why it matters: While driverless trucks on the highway may seem scary to some motorists, Aurora and other AV developers say the technology will make roads safer and help bolster a critical sector of the American economy, which often can't find enough drivers. Driving the news: After four years of testing with humans behind the wheel, Aurora pulled the driver for the first time last Sunday, April 27, on a route between Dallas and Houston. The action came after Aurora completed its safety case — an evidence-based argument for why the technology is safe to deploy — and had recorded three million autonomous miles hauling more than 10,000 customer loads. Since the weekend, the Aurora Driver has completed over 1,200 autonomous miles with its launch partners, Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines, a refrigerated trucking carrier, the company said.. Between the lines: The milestone was a crowning achievement for Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson, considered a pioneer in autonomous vehicle technology. Urmson was also an early leader at Google's early self-driving car project, now called Waymo. And people he led at Google went on to leadership positions at other AV startups. Urmson rode in the back of a Hirschbach cab for the first round-trip journey between Dallas and Houston. In a blog post, he described the experience as "surreal." "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," he wrote. "It's novel. It's technically extraordinary. And yet, it's all pretty boring. The driving is smooth, courteous and predictable. And of course, that's exactly the way it should be." What's next: Aurora plans to expand its driverless service to El Paso, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona by the end of 2025.
