At a time of year where many companies slow down operations, Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation is ramping things up as it prepares for the start of 2023.
On Dec. 19, the autonomous vehicle company announced that it had launched Aurora Driver Beta 5.0, the latest version of its integrated hardware and autonomy system, to its autonomous trucking fleet in Texas.
Per a Tweet from the company, the launch coincides with the 100-days out mark until Aurora reaches “Feature Complete.” That milestone indicates that all capabilities required for the commercial launch of its Aurora Horizon product, the subscription-based autonomous trucking service, will have been implemented in the Aurora Driver and all policy interventions will have been removed.
Aurora expects to reach Feature Complete by the end of Q1 2023. The company doesn’t expect its commercial launch to take place until 2024, however, as an “extensive” validation phase will take place following Feature Complete.
“We are already demonstrating the value an autonomous trucking product can bring to our pilot customers as we continue to deliver loads across Texas each day,” Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO at Aurora, said in a press release. “Launching our latest beta release moves Aurora one step closer to a commercial-ready product and helps to prepare us for the scaled deployment of Aurora Horizon across the country.”
Over the past year, Aurora has launched five beta releases to its Aurora Driver, with each building upon the capabilities established within its initial beta release. In addition to piloting its trucking fleet in Texas, which continues to perform weekly freight hauls for companies such as FedEx, UberFreight, Werner, and Schneider, Aurora Beta 5.0 is also powering the company’s ride-hailing fleet that is testing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Aurora Beta 5.0 introduces new safety and highway driving capabilities such as: detecting and appropriately responding to emergency vehicles; the ability to safely reenter traffic after solving a system problem that prompted the vehicle to pull over to the shoulder; and navigating lanes with temporary barriers.
In September 2021, Aurora, FedEx, and Washington-based truck manufacturer Paccar launched a commercial pilot test of autonomous trucks in linehaul trucking operations. Autonomously enabled trucks started hauling FedEx loads between Dallas and Houston, a 500-mile trip along Texas’ I-45 corridor. And in May, FedEx and Aurora announced they had expanded the pilot program to autonomously move FedEx shipments on an additional commercial lane in Texas.
