Autonomous truck company Aurora delays hauling freight without human drivers until April

Autonomous truck firm Aurora Innovation says it will not begin hauling freight with out people on board till April of subsequent 12 months, a delay from earlier statements that industrial service would start by the top of 2024.

The Pittsburgh firm on Wednesday stated the April launch of driverless semis touring from Dallas to Houston might be “modestly later” than the corporate had meant.

The corporate informed buyers on its third-quarter earnings convention name that it has made progress towards guaranteeing its vans will function safely.

Remaining obstacles are “primarily within the areas of some components of floor avenue driving and a few components of building that we see on the freeway,” CEO Chris Urmson stated. “We need to have extraordinarily excessive confidence within the system as we as we go ahead.”

The corporate will begin with about 10 autonomous tractor-trailers and transfer to “tens” of vans by the top of subsequent 12 months, Urmson stated.

“This shift to our timeline can have a negligible monetary impression and doesn’t have an effect on our scaling efforts on our path to self-funding,” Urmson stated.

Aurora additionally intends to haul freight with out human drivers from Fort Value, Texas, to Phoenix later in 2025, Urmson stated.

Aurora in August added practically $500 million to its stability sheet with a capital increase in August, which the corporate expects to fund the preliminary phases of its technique to scale up driverless trucking.

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