Uber and Aurora announce “long-term” driverless truck deal after successful pilot

Uber’s freight hauling business will use Aurora’s driverless trucks on routes between Dallas and Houston as part of a new “long-term” deal that builds on a three-year-old commercial pilot.

Uber Freight will be one of Aurora’s first customers on the Texas route launching later this year. Launched in 2017, Uber Freight connects truck drivers with shippers, much in the same way the company’s ridehailing app pairs drivers with those looking for a ride.

Aurora, which was founded by former executives from Google, Uber, and Tesla, has said it plans to deploy 20 fully autonomous trucks this year. When it does, those trucks will be hauling goods for Uber Freight customers.

The two companies are also launching a program called Premier Autonomy, which enables carriers an “early and streamlined” way to access the Aurora Driver, which is the branding used by the company to describe its driverless technology. Aurora is offering its customers access to its Aurora Driver tech through a subscription, rather than trying to own and operate its own fleet of trucks.

Premier Autonomy members will also get “access to over 1 billion driverless miles through 2030” as well as “seamless integration” of the Aurora Driver into the Uber Freight platform. Aurora president Ossa Fisher said in a statement that the program will give “hundreds” of carriers access to driverless trucks that might not otherwise have it.

Of course, Uber and Aurora have numerous ties. Drew Bagnell, former head of Uber’s autonomy and perception team, was one of the three co-founders of Aurora. The ridehailing company had been developing its own self-driving truck as part of its larger investment in autonomous technology but later was forced to off-load it to Aurora. Ballooning costs, plus the tragedy in Arizona when an Uber self-driving car struck and killed a pedestrian, forced Uber to pull the plug on its AV project.

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Previously, Uber Freight said it would work with Alphabet’s Waymo on deploying driverless trucks, but the Google spinoff has since scaled back its trucking division and is now relying on manufacturing partners like Daimler to spearhead its ambitions. Aurora is also working with several other partners, including Volvo and Continental.

Aurora has avoided a lot of the negative press of its robotaxi peers, mostly by staying below the radar. Still, the company is struggling to right its finances. Aurora reported a net loss of $165 million in the first quarter of 2024, which is a 16 percent improvement over the same period the year before.