Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation (Aurora) is an autonomous vehicle technology startup founded by former Google, Tesla, and Uber executives. It provides autonomous vehicles under two divisions, namely “Aurora Horizon” (its autonomous trucking service) and “Aurora Connect” (its autonomous ride-hailing service). Both are powered by the company’s self-driving technology “Aurora Driver,” which is expected to be feature complete by Q1 2023. In July 2020, the company tested Aurora Driver using Peterbilt Class-8 trucks and Chrysler Pacifica minivans. The vehicles were tested on commercial routes for package delivery in Texas. In August 2021, Aurora launched its “Fusion” next-generation hardware kit to improve the decision-making speed and accuracy of Aurora Driver and enable autonomous vehicles to operate in varying weather conditions. The company also introduced “Aurora Beacon,” a fleet management software in May 2022. The company has its own LiDAR sensor system, “FirstLight Lidar,” integrated into its Aurora Driver technology.

Aurora plans to provide the service to customers on a subscription basis once commercialized in 2024. Aurora reported logging 180,000 cumulative trucking miles across all its pilots and lanes operating a fleet of 31 trucks as of October 2022. It launched its first commercial-ready truck route connecting Dallas and Houston, Texas in November 2023, ahead of its commercialization plans.  However, Aurora laid off 3% of its workforce (about 53 employees) in January 2024, to boost the commercial launch efficiency of its autonomous trucking business.

Key customers and partnerships

In January 2021, Aurora partnered with the medium and heavy-duty truck manufacturer Paccar to develop and deploy autonomous trucks. The plan is to test autonomous Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks at Paccar’s technical center in Washington and on public roads. The companies expect to deploy the trucks in North America within the next few years. In March 2021, Aurora also partnered with Volvo to jointly develop autonomous semi-trucks for the North American market (received the first autonomy-enabled truck in Q3 2023; prototype version unveiled in September 2021). In April 2023 , Aurora partnered with Continental to design and develop autonomous driving systems for trucks. Aurora and Continental plan to launch the autonomous trucking systems in 2024, with plans to commence production in 2027.

Aurora has secured several deployment partnerships with companies including FedEx (September 2021; extended in May 2022) Uber Freight (December 2021; extended in December 2022), Werner Enterprises (April 2022), and Schneider National (August 2022) for delivery pilots in Texas. The company also has partnerships with U.S. Xpress (February 2022) and Covenant Logistics (May 2022) to design deployment strategies and refine its autonomous technology.

The company also has a November 2022 partnership with Ryder System to pilot on-site fleet maintenance at Aurora’s facility in South Dallas, Texas. In May 2023, Aurora announced a partnership with Hirschbach Motor Lines , to launch a new refrigerated trucking service.

Aurora acquired Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), Uber’s self-driving car unit in December 2020, to complement its autonomous technology development. As part of the transaction, upon transferring ATG to Aurora, Uber invested USD 400 million in Aurora, and Uber’s CEO joined Aurora’s board. It has also acquired two LiDAR startups, namely Blackmore (May 2019) and OURS Technology (February 2021), to expedite and complement its LiDAR development process. 

Funding and financials

Aurora was listed on the Nasdaq in November 2021 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), valuing the combined entity at USD 13 billion. In July 2023, Aurora raised USD 820 million in a public offering (USD 220 million) and in a concurrent private placement (USD 600 million). Aurora didn’t report any revenue for the year ended December 2023 (as opposed to a revenue of USD 68 million in 2022). It reported an operating loss of USD 835 million for the year.