Aurora canceled its second quarter earnings call, instead announcing the commencement of an underwritten public offering for up to $350 million of its Class A common stock.
The autonomous vehicle company still expects to have completely driverless trucks on the road in Texas by the end of the year, but is not on path to be self-funding until 2027. The company currently only has enough cash on hand to last through the end of 2025.
The company has not kept its cash necessities a secret — last quarter it gave a similar timeframe, acknowledging that it would run out of cash before breaking even.
"We ended the second quarter with a very strong balance sheet, including $1.0 billion in cash and short-term investments," CFO David Maday wrote in the shareholder letter. "We continue to expect this liquidity to support our planned commercial launch and fund our operations into the fourth quarter of 2025."
Maday detailed $198 million in second quarter operating expenses, including $138 million in research and development, $38 million in stock-based compensation and $22 million in selling, general and administrative expenses. The company expects to spend between $175 million and $185 million per quarter throughout the rest of this year.
Aurora (NASDAQ: AUR) closed the day at $4.00 a share, dropping down to approximately $3.60 in after hours trading after the announcement was made.
The company has faced a longstanding battle with public perception of its technology. A poll conducted by AAA found that 66% of Americans are "afraid" of self-driving vehicles, while only 9% "trust" them. Some members of the company have attributed the perception to other companies that have been involved in high-profile incidents.
In a letter to shareholders, CEO Chris Urmson detailed a recent first of its kind safety audit the company underwent from an independent tester, which found that the company was "proactive, responsible and thorough in [its] safety."
"This audit is the first of its kind for the autonomous vehicle industry; we believe this is an important further validation and should help build confidence ahead of commercial launch," Urmson wrote in the shareholder letter. "So far 2024 has already been an exciting year at Aurora, and we are confident that the best is yet to come."
