Aurora Readies Customers for Driverless Operations

By: Aurora Innovation, Inc. via Business Wire

September 05, 2024 at 18:00 PM EDT

Company hosts Partner Summit, launches Partner Success Program, and announces Phoenix route expansion

Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR) is hosting a two-day Partner Summit where company leaders will share exciting updates, including the introduction of its Partner Success Program and the planned route expansion between El Paso, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona.

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Aurora has hauled over 7,000 loads for pilot customers across nearly two million commercial miles to date. (Photo: Aurora)

“We strongly believe that engaging key partners – the people who will regularly interact with the Aurora Driver – is critical to the success of our driverless commercial product," said Ossa Fisher, president of Aurora. “Our Partner Summit allows us to showcase the capabilities and competence of the Aurora Driver and build trust with our stakeholders that we’re on the right path to safely deploy driverless trucks.”

Aurora Partner Summit

The Aurora Partner Summit brings together over 20 carriers as well as industry safety experts, regulators, first responders, and law enforcement from the national, state, and local level for collaborative conversations on a wide range of industry topics.

Nat Beuse, Aurora’s Chief Safety Officer, will outline the company’s approach to evaluating the Aurora Driver’s readiness for driverless operations between Dallas and Houston through the closure of its Safety Case. Additionally, law enforcement professionals and first responders will share their experiences working with Aurora and how they are preparing for driverless trucks in Texas.

Partner Success Program

Aurora is launching an industry-first Partner Success Program, which puts customers’ drivers and executives in the cab of Aurora Driver-powered trucks to evaluate autonomy performance before driverless operations. To help validate the program, Aurora enlisted J.J. Keller, a trusted source in safety and regulatory compliance, to take a ride and provide feedback on the experience. The program is slated to begin in Q4 2024.

Phoenix Route Expansion

As part of the company’s effort to unlock value for carriers, Aurora plans to extend its Fort Worth to El Paso lane by opening operations to Phoenix. The company expects to begin commercial pilots for customers between Fort Worth and Phoenix in the first half of 2025 with the intent to go driverless on that route later in the year. The 1,000-mile passage takes over 15 hours to complete, making it particularly compelling for autonomy.

Aurora has hauled over 7,000 loads for pilot customers across nearly two million commercial miles to date. For more information, visit aurora.tech.

About Aurora

Aurora (Nasdaq: AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly to make transportation safer, increasingly accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. The Aurora Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and underpins Aurora’s driver-as-a-service products for trucking and ride-hailing. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem, including Continental, FedEx, Hirschbach, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner. To learn more, visit aurora.tech.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include, but are not limited to, the Partner Success Program, Aurora’s planned lane expansion and launch of commercial pilots on such expanded lane and on the timelines provided or at all. These statements are based on management’s current assumptions and are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Information regarding the foregoing and additional risks are described in the “Risk Factors” section of Aurora’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2024, as amended by Aurora’s Form 10-K/A filed with the SEC on May 24, 2024, and other filings that Aurora makes with the SEC from time to time. All forward-looking statements reflect Aurora’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Aurora undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.