Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation Inc. (Nasdaq: AUR) is nearly ready to bring driverless trucks to Texas roads in 2024, thanks to a new terminal that opened in Houston.
The terminal, which is similar to the facility that Aurora opened in Dallas earlier this year, connects the company’s Texas operations via the busy Interstate 45 corridor that links the two cities. Aurora said that with nearly half of the Lone Star State’s trucking freight moving between Houston and Dallas, the corridor was an ideal location for a commercial launch.
“Opening a driverless trucking lane flanked by commercially ready terminals is an industry-first that unlocks our ability to launch our driverless trucking product,” Sterling Anderson, co-founder and chief product officer at Aurora, said in a Nov. 1 announcement.
Pilot customers for the company’s run include Tennessee-based shipping giant FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), which previously announced a pilot partnership with Aurora in September 2021. An Aurora spokesperson confirmed to Houston Inno that the company would launch with approximately 20 vehicles with plans for further expansion. Aurora is hauling 75 loads per week on the I-45 corridor and aims to scale from there.
In addition to its Houston terminal, Aurora will also prepare a command center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where human specialists and dispatchers will communicate and allocate trucks.
An August 2023 report from Global Market Insights said the autonomous trucking industry had a 2022 U.S. market value of $301.2 billion and a compound annual growth rate of 15% over the next decade as the transportation and logistics industry seeks to increase efficiency. The report said that as demand rises, companies will seek to move past the requirements of a human driver.
Aurora told Houston Inno that the company currently has 200 Texas employees and is hiring in Houston. The company’s Dallas terminal employs over 50 people, and Aurora said it will hire in Houston for roles including terminal operators, fleet technicians and mapping specialists.
Last month, Houston saw another company expand autonomous trucking operations, as California-based Kodiak Robotics Inc. and Danish shipping giant AP Moller – Maersk began running trucks between Houston and Oklahoma City. Kodiak, which also operates on the I-45 corridor between Houston and Dallas, said its trucks are currently still operating with human drivers but anticipated going driverless by the end of 2024.
Autonomous vehicle technology has seen both support and pushback at the policy level across the country. In May 2023, California’s state legislature considered a bill that would have required self-driving trucks to have human operators on board, though California Gov. Gavin Newsom eventually vetoed the bill. Meanwhile in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott in 2019 authorized the Texas Department of Transportation to create the Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Task Force to serve as a hub for the state’s activity in developing AV technology.
