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Self-driving vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation is targeting April 2025 for the commercial deployment of its self-driving trucks, pushing back its timeline by nearly a quarter. The company had originally planned to launch it by the end of 2024. The company said it delayed the launch so it could continue to validate its self-driving technology.
“Although this is a little later than we intended, this timing remains within the margin of error we expected and communicated throughout 2024,” Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, wrote in his letter. Third quarter earnings Shareholders’ letter. “With our intention to offer the Aurora Driver in a crawl, walk and run style, this shift to our schedule will have minimal financial impact.”
Aurora will come to market as a carrier, but its ultimate goal is to follow a Driver-as-a-Service model, where carriers purchase trucks with Aurora Driver technology on board and then offer their services via those trucks to shippers.
One way Aurora measures the performance and commercial readiness of its Aurora Driver software is through its use of on-site support, which the company says will be the most expensive support offered. As of the end of Q3, Aurora drivers were delivering commercial loads without remote human support 80% of the time, representing a 75% increase from Q2. The goal is to reach 90% through commercial launch in the spring.
The startup intends to deploy up to 10 self-driving trucks during the commercial launch, with the aim of increasing the number to dozens of trucks by the end of 2025.
Aurora has tested commercial loads with beta customers including FedEx, Werner, Schneider, Hirschbach, Uber Freight and others. The company schedules approximately 160 commercial loads per week, which Aurora says is more than double the volume compared to last year. As of October 27, 2024, Aurora trucks have autonomously delivered more than 8,200 loads and driven more than 2.2 million business miles – but all with a human behind the wheel.
Aurora, a leading pre-revenue technology company, reported operating expenses of $196 million in the third quarter, including stock-based compensation of $35 million. That’s less than the $212 million it spent in the same period last year, which Aurora says demonstrates its commitment to frugality on its path to commercialization.
The startup ended the quarter with $1.4 billion in cash and investments after raising nearly half a billion dollars in August, which would give Aurora a runway through 2026 and fund its initial phase of expansion and reach a place of sustainability.
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