Aurora Innovation, a self-driving technology company, recently launched its commercial self-driving trucking service in Texas.
Regular driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston began in late April. Aurora is the first company to operate a commercial self-driving service with heavy-duty trucks on public roads. It has completed more than 1,200 miles without a driver and plans to expand driverless service to El Paso, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona by the end of the year.
“We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly,” Chris Urmson, Aurora CEO and co-founder, said. “Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads. 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.”
The Aurora Driver is an SAE L4 self-driving system that is equipped with a computer and sensors that can detect beyond the length of four football fields. During the testing phase, more than 10,000 customer loads were completed across 3 million autonomous miles. The system showed the ability to avoid collisions, detect pedestrians in the dark hundreds of feet away and predict red light runners.