After years of testing, Aurora says its first fully autonomous tractor-trailers are now operating on public roads in Texas. The company’s Class 8 trucks are now delivering customers between Dallas and Houston, having already covered 1,200 miles “without a driver,” Aurora said. Customers for these first trips include Uber Freight, a freight brokerage company, and Hirschbach Motor Lines, a carrier that delivers time- and temperature-sensitive goods.
Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said he rode in the back seat on the first trip of the first truck, which he called “the honor of a lifetime.”
“We founded Aurora to ensure that the benefits of self-driving technology are taken advantage of safely, quickly, and widely,” Urmson said in a statement. “We are now the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial self-driving freight service on public roads.”
Aurora said it plans to expand its self-driving trucking service to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025.
Self-driving trucks were once expected to outpace robocabs and private autonomous vehicles in mass adoption, given that highways are much less complex than city and residential streets. But self-driving truck operators have faced technology and regulatory hurdles that have delayed their public debut. Some companies, such as Embark Trucks, TuSimple, and Locomation, have gone out of business, while others have scaled back plans to introduce self-driving trucks as timelines have stretched into the future and funding has dried up.
Moreover, public opinion on autonomous vehicles is trending downward, thanks in part to the mistakes of companies like Tesla and Cruise. But, like Waymo, Aurora is pinning its hopes on a measured, conservative approach to commercialization, as well as an emphasis on safety.
Founded in 2017 by alumni of Uber, Tesla, and Waymo, Aurora planned to launch its fully autonomous trucks in 2024. But those plans have been delayed until this year as the company continues to fine-tune its autonomous system for on-street traffic and construction sites.
