Aurora expands self-driving trucks route to El Paso

Aurora Innovation has expanded its autonomous trucking operations by launching a new 600-mile driverless route from Fort Worth to El Paso, marking its second commercial self-driving truck route. This expansion was announced alongside the company’s third-quarter earnings report and follows its initial Dallas-to-Houston route, launched with partners Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight. Aurora has now completed over 100,000 driverless miles on public roads using five self-driving trucks, a significant milestone achieved earlier in the year. The company aims to further extend its service to Phoenix by the end of 2025, aligning with its original plan to build a large fleet of autonomous trucks and cover key Texas and Southwest routes. In addition to route expansion, Aurora revealed advancements in its next-generation hardware, developed in partnership with Fabrinet and integrated into Volvo VNL Autonomous trucks. This new hardware is more durable, offers improved performance, and costs half as much as previous versions. Notably, the upgraded lidar can detect objects up to