Strip District headquartered Aurora Innovation Inc. announced plans to expand its Fort Worth to El Paso lane to Phoenix in 2025.
It's the first formal announcement of plans to scale its autonomous trucking technology out of the state of Texas. The company has tested vehicles on two routes in Texas — one between Dallas and Houston and the other being the aforementioned Fort Worth to El Paso lane.
Currently, those test vehicles operate with a driver behind the wheel in the event of an emergency, but the company has repeatedly reiterated that the Dallas to Houston route will be completely driverless by the end of this year. The planned Fort Worth to Phoenix expanded lane is planned to be available for testing in the first half of 2025, with plans for a driverless route later that year. A release from the company notes that the approximately 15 hour, 1,000-mile passage's length is "particularly compelling for autonomy."
The expansion is the first definitive statement on the company's plans to scale past Texas. Despite raising $483 million in a public offering in August, the company does not expect to be cash flow positive until 2028. The company has previously teased a widespread Sun Belt expansion, estimated to occur over the next few years, and has previously indicated that either Phoenix or Atlanta would be chosen. Ultimately, the company has decided to head west.
The route expansion was announced at the Aurora Partner Summit, a two-day event where the company is sharing updates and information with "over 20" commercial partners. The company has attained a slew of commercial partners over the past several years, including PACCAR, FedEx, Toyota, Uber, Volvo and Continental.
"We strongly believe that engaging key partners, the people who will regularly interact with the Aurora Driver, is critical to the success of our driverless commercial product," Aurora president Ossa Fisher said in a prepared statement. "Our Partner Summit allows us to showcase the capabilities and competence of the Aurora Driver and build trust with our stakeholders that we're on the right path to safely deploy driverless trucks."
The summit includes regulators, first responders and law enforcement, the latter two of which will speak on how the state of Texas is preparing to handle the logistics of a driverless truck. Now, the company will need to engage with regulators and first responders from both New Mexico and Arizona.
Additionally, the company announced what it's dubbed a "Partner Success Program" which will allow customers' executives and drivers to ride in the cab of Aurora trucks to see the technology first hand.
