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Aurora is ramping up operations and aims to launch a new tech platform in early 2026 to support further scaling. Aurora, the only autonomous vehicle developer operating driverless long-haul trucks on public roads, has revealed some juicy tidbits about progress towards building their fleet size and expanding freight operations. How? New tech and new suppliers. “Six months out from launch, we’re achieving more industry-firsts, expanding quickly, and paving the way to deploy hundreds of trucks next year,” said Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO at Aurora. “Expanding to El Paso, notching over 100,000 driverless miles, and integrating our new hardware with multiple truck platforms extends our strong lead.” Expanding The Footprint Of Driverless Operations Aurora trucks are now running in Texas from Fort Worth to El Paso, while continuing operations between Dallas and Houston. Customers for the new freight lane include Hirschbach and Russell Transport. Traveling from Fort Worth to El Paso is a 600 mile freight run that can take up to ten hours to complete. The autonomous trucks can drop a load, pickup another load and head back the other way. Compare this to human-driven vehicles in which truck drivers are constrained to eleven hours of driving in a 24-hour period, requiring rest periods. And it’s not just about driver limitations. Consider how many hours a day a typical Class 8 truck sits motionless because the driver is in a mandated rest period. The truck is therefore a high-cost asset which is “off line” for a large part of the time. This has been a thorn-in-the-side of trucking operations from the beginning. Driverless trucks can greatly increase utilization of these trucks by running almost continuously. MORE FOR YOU As Aurora puts it, “Staffing challenges and the difficulty of completing the 10-hour haul in a single day make the route daunting for carriers, underscoring the AuroraDriver’s value in providing reliable, around-the-clock operations.” 100,000 Driverless Miles Aurora reports that, since their driverless launch in late April, their vehicles have driven 100,000 driverless miles. In doing so, the company notes a perfect on-time performance and safety record. Five driverless trucks are now regularly delivering customer freight. Next Generation Hardware Changes Everything Aurora notes that this next generation hardware is more robust, while also changing the game cost-wise. The new-gen system will be half the price of the current generation. In addition, the platform will be more reliable, built to last for over a million miles. Sensing is also getting a significant upgrade. The new generation of Aurora’s FirstLight Lidar can detect objects 1,000 meters away, which is twice the distance of the current generation. To support all-weather operations, Aurora has implemented enhanced sensor cleaning which allows the Aurora Driver to operate reliably in harsher weather conditions. The new hardware is manufactured by Fabrinet and precedes the highly-scalable hardware being jointly developed with AUMOVIO (formerly Continental), which is slated for production in 2027 and is expected to enable the deployment of tens of thousands of trucks. Simultaneous Platform Integration The Aurora Driver’s common core architecture allows for seamless integration across multiple truck platforms. The new hardware is being integrated with the Volvo VNL Autonomous, where lineside integration is taking place at Volvo’s New River Valley manufacturing facility. “The integration of Aurora’s next-generation hardware with the Volvo VNL Autonomous on the pilot line at our New River Valley facility marks an industry-first partnership and highlights the meaningful progress we are making together,” said Nils Jaeger, President of Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “By manufacturing trucks purpose-built for autonomy, we’re moving beyond prototypes and creating scalable solutions that are ready to meet the demands of a modern supply chain.” PACCAR continues to test their autonomy-enabled truck platform at its facilities, which Aurora will then integrate with the highly-scalable hardware being co-developed with AUMOVIO. Expanding Customer Capacity Via A New Source Aurora is also purchasing International LT Series vehicles to provide customers with greater driverless capacity in 2026. Aurora has successfully begun testing the new fleet at its closed test track. Upon completion of a closed safety case for these trucks, Aurora plans to haul freight without a partner-requested observer in Q2 2026 and already has customer interest for this capacity. My understanding is this is a limited collaboration. Aurora will perform all the necessary retrofitting required for driverless operations. Both parties have agreed that Aurora is the sole decision maker on when to driverlessly operate the trucks. But What About… Watchers of the autonomous truck space will be aware that International has partnered with PlusAI for it’s debut of driverless truck products. The partners have previously stated that they are targeting a commercial launch in 2027. This was reinforced in a joint International-PlusAI press release today. “We are excited about the advancements we’re making in our autonomy program with our global autonomy partner PlusAI. Building on our fleet trials in Texas, the collaboration with NVIDIA and PlusAI is an important step on our path to production,” said Tobias Glitterstam, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer at International. It is clear from talking with both Aurora and PlusAI that two very different scenarios are playing out. PlusAI is the chosen supplier for International / TRATON to bring driverless products to market worldwide. Aurora is buyer of International vehicles, which Aurora will retrofit with the needed hardware and software to operate driverlessly, thus expanding their fleet. Regulatory Moves In related news from Washington, Aurora’s ramp-up to run hundreds of trucks next year has received a boost from regulators. After a protracted process with USDOT starting at the beginning of this decade, the current Administration has granted Aurora a waiver on warning beacons, which is an archaic requirement of any commercial truck driver that, when the vehicle stops on the road shoulder, the driver must place a simple warning triangle on the roadside behind the truck. Skeptics abound as to the wisdom of this approach in general, which would obviously be a challenge for a driverless truck. Thus, an unnecessary barrier appears to have been lifted for Aurora and this is likely to spread across the industry in the near term. Aurora’s Business Review Call addressing third quarter 2025 results has been released today, in which more detail on the announcements above are provided. The company’s shareholder letter and financial results are available on its investor relations website at ir.aurora.tech. Aurora will host a business review conference call today at 5:00 p.m. ET. Disclosure: Richard Bishop is an Advisor to and/or an equity holder in the following companies mentioned in this article: Aurora, PlusAI. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
