Six years ago, Aurora Innovation Inc. and Volvo built their first autonomous truck together. Lime green and nicknamed Pistachio, it was the first of many prototypes the two would make.
In March 2021, Aurora finished developing long-range LIDAR sensor technology, the two entered into a strategic partnership and then publicly showed a prototype in September of that year.
Today, the companies have moved past prototypes and debuted Volvo's first production-ready autonomous truck, which they intend to use to deploy and scale following Aurora's planned 2024 commercial launch. The reveal came at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Las Vegas.
In the six years since Pistachio, the autonomous vehicle industry has seen consistent changes. In Pittsburgh, investments have been large, but so have losses. Argo AI received billions in investment, shuttered its doors and then saw its founders launch a new company, StackAV, which went on to reportedly raise hundreds of millions more.
Layoffs also have been common. According to state filings, Motional laid off 145 people working in Allegheny County earlier this month. In February of last year, Carnegie Mellon University spin-out Locomotion cut 70% of its operations and shut down primary operations. Even Aurora has experienced difficulties, laying off 3% of its workforce in January.
But since then, Aurora has remained firm that it will have completely driverless trucks on the road by the end of the year.
The road ahead for the company over the next several months may appear long, but both companies are looking beyond.
"We are at the forefront of a new way to transport goods, complementing and enhancing transportation capacity and thereby enabling trade and societal growth," Nil Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, said in a statement. "This truck is the first of our standardized global autonomous technology platform, which will enable us to introduce additional models in the future, bringing autonomy to all Volvo Group truck brands."
Volvo intends to produce these trucks in a flagship plant in Virginia, which an Aurora spokesperson referred to as Volvo's "largest and most technically advanced facility."
