What’s Happening: Aurora Innovation announced that its Aurora Driver is now Feature Complete, a crucial step towards launching Aurora Horizon, the company’s autonomous trucking subscription service. Aurora plans to commercially haul freight without vehicle operators between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2024.
Why It Matters: This milestone demonstrates the progress being made in autonomous vehicle technology and the potential disruption to the trucking industry. Aurora’s achievements could pave the way for safer and more efficient freight transportation in the near future.
Key Points:
- Feature Complete was achieved upon the release of Aurora Driver Beta 6.0, which is the result of years of innovation in the company’s award-winning patent portfolio.
- Aurora has made foundational technology investments and strategic decisions to reach this point, with plans to close its Safety Case for launch in the coming months.
- The company has incrementally increased the autonomous performance, safety, and reliability of the Aurora Driver through six Beta updates, partnering with companies like FedEx, Werner, Schneider, and Uber Freight for pilot hauls.
- Beta 6.0 refines and unlocks highly complex capabilities essential for driverless operations, such as identifying and responding to collisions and reacting to “out of design domain” scenarios.
- Aurora is now entering the final phase of refinement and validation ahead of launch, working to close the Aurora Driver portion of its Safety Case and achieve Aurora Driver Ready status.
Bottom Line: Aurora Innovation’s achievement of Feature Complete for its Aurora Driver is a significant step forward for autonomous vehicle technology, bringing the company closer to launching its autonomous trucking subscription service, Aurora Horizon. The progress made by Aurora has the potential to disrupt the trucking industry, making freight transportation safer and more efficient. As the company works towards closing its Safety Case and achieving Aurora Driver Ready status, it is expected to share regular updates on its Autonomy Readiness Measure.
