Self-driving car technology startup Aurora Innovation is targeting commercial deployment of self-driving trucks in April 2025, which is about a quarter behind schedule. The company originally planned to launch it by the end of 2024. The company said it delayed the launch to continue validating its self-driving technology.
“While this is somewhat later than we had intended, this timing is well within our margin of error for what we expected and delivered for all of 2024,” Aurora CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson wrote in his third-quarter earnings shareholder letter. “Due to our intention to introduce the Aurora Driver with a crawl, walk, or run approach, this timeline shift will have minimal financial impact.”
Aurora plans to enter the market as a carrier, but its ultimate goal is to pursue a driver-as-a-service model where carriers purchase trucks equipped with Aurora Driver technology and then use those trucks to serve shippers.
One of the ways Aurora measures the performance and commercial readiness of its Aurora Driver is through on-site support, which the company says will be the most expensive support it provides. As of the end of the third quarter, Aurora drivers transported commercial freight without remote human assistance 80% of the time, a 75% increase from the second quarter. The goal is to achieve 90% by commercialization this spring.
The startup plans to deploy up to 10 driverless trucks during its commercial launch, and aims to grow its fleet to dozens by the end of 2025.
Aurora has been testing commercial freight with pilot customers including FedEx, Werner, Schneider, Hirschbach, Uber Freight and others. The company is booking about 160 commercial shipments per week, more than double last year, according to Aurora. As of October 27, 2024, Aurora’s trucks have autonomously delivered more than 8,200 loads and driven more than 2.2 million commercial miles. However, they all have a person in the driver’s seat.
Aurora, a pre-revenue company building pioneering technologies, recorded operating expenses of $196 million in the third quarter, including $35 million in stock-based compensation. That’s less than the $212 million it spent in the same period last year, which Aurora says shows it’s being frugal in its commercialization process.
The startup ended the quarter with $1.4 billion in cash and investments after raising nearly $500 million in August. This should secure Aurora’s runway by 2026 and fund early-stage expansion and sustainability.
