Aurora Innovation Inc., an autonomous vehicle technology developer, entered into an exclusive partnership with Continental AG for the first scalable buildout of the Aurora Driver, a hardware and software system that's looking to bring self-driving tech to vehicles.
The partnership is the first of its kind for the industry, Aurora said, which will see the Strip District-based company work hand-in-hand with the German multinational automotive parts manufacturer to design, develop and validate Aurora's self-driving system for the trucking industry. The two firms will also work to ensure the delivery and service of this system, which Aurora is hoping to initially ship before the end of 2024 as part of a subscription-based service called Aurora Horizon.
"Continental's legacy in development and industrialization of automated driving systems, combined with its commitment to transform transportation make it an ideal partner for Aurora," Chris Urmson, Aurora CEO, said in a prepared statement. "Their depth of expertise will be pivotal to scaling Aurora’s autonomous trucking service, Aurora Horizon."
Aurora said the work being done as a result of this partnership will come to fruition in 2027, which is when the physical production of this system with Continental's support is expected to begin.
"In this exclusive partnership, we bundle our systems' competence with Aurora’s industry-leading autonomous technology for our common goal to jointly realize the first commercially scalable autonomous trucking systems," Nikolai Setzer, CEO of Continental, said in a prepared statement. "[This is a] crucial step towards autonomous mobility."
The partnership will also see Aurora and Continental work together to devise a fallback system in the event that a driverless truck runs into a situation where it can no longer proceed along its route.
Additionally, Continental will oversee the management of the hardware kits being supplied for the Aurora Driver from the point of manufacture to decommissioning. These kits will then be supplied to Aurora's vehicle manufacturing partners, which Aurora said will increase the scalability of its self-driving tech.
Aurora said the partnership is one that is based on a hardware-as-a-service business model that will have its costs determined by mileage driven. The company did not share more specific terms of the arrangement as it related to the financial matters of the deal.
