Aurora Innovation postpones the launch of commercial autonomous trucks until 2025

Aurora Innovation, a business developing autonomous car technology, has pushed back its commercial deployment date by around a quarter, aiming for April 2025. Initially, the business intended to launch by the end of 2024. According to the corporation, the launch was postponed to allow for further validation of its self-driving technology.

In his third-quarter earnings shareholder letter, Chris Urmson, the CEO and co-founder of Aurora, stated, “While this is modestly later than we had intended, this timing remains within the margin of error we have anticipated and conveyed throughout 2024.” “With our intention to introduce the Aurora Driver with a crawl, walk, run approach, this shift to our timeline will have a negligible financial impact.”

While Aurora will enter the market as a carrier, its ultimate objective is to pursue a driver-as-a-service model in which carriers buy trucks equipped with the Aurora Driver technology and then provide their services to shippers via those trucks.

On-site assistance, which the business claims will be the most costly service offered, is one way Aurora assesses the functionality and commercial preparedness of its Aurora Driver. The Aurora Driver was delivering commercial loads 80% of the time by the end of the third quarter without the assistance of a remote human, a 75% increase from the second quarter. By the time of the spring commercial launch, 90% is the target.

During its commercial launch, the business plans to use up to 10 autonomous trucks; by the end of 2025, it hopes to have tens of trucks in use.

With the help of pilot clients like FedEx, Werner, Schneider, Hirschbach, Uber Freight, and others, Aurora has been testing commercial loads. According to Aurora, the company arranges over 160 commercial loads every week, more than double the number from the previous year. As of October 27, 2024, Aurora’s trucks have driven over 2.2 million business miles and delivered over 8,200 goods on their own, but always with a human driver.

In the third quarter, Aurora, a pre-revenue business that develops pioneer technology, reported operating expenses of $196 million, which included $35 million in stock-based compensation. Compared to the $212 million it spent over the same time last year, Aurora claims that this shows its dedication to being cost-effective as it moves toward commercialization.

After financing nearly half a billion dollars in August, the business closed the quarter with $1.4 billion in cash and investments, which should offer Aurora runway until 2026 and fund its initial stage of growth and reaching a place of sustainability.