Autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation is delaying the launch of its driverless trucks until April 2025 from an earlier announcement that it would begin by the end of this year.
The Pittsburgh, Pa.-based company said it must continue to examine that its trucks will be able to operate safely on public roads, pointing out that there are still some obstacles “primarily in the areas of some elements of surface street driving and some elements of construction that we see on the freeway.”
“We want to have extremely high confidence in the system as we go forward,” CEO Chris Urmson told investors in a call about third-quarter earnings, the Associated Press reported.
To begin, Ursom said the company must close the “safety case” for the Dallas to Houston lane.
“While this is modestly later than we had intended, this timing remains within the margin of error we have anticipated and conveyed throughout 2024,” Urmson wrote in a shareholder letter.
“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,” he said.
During launch, he said the company will deploy up to 10 driverless trucks, beginning with one tractor-trailer, and then eventually make them all driverless.
“We are deliberately starting this way, as our early efforts will be focused on exercising the full product suite to ensure a seamless product launch while demonstrating the value proposition for our customers, and continuing to build trust with all of our stakeholders,” Urmson said in the letter.
In the second half of next year, he said the company will focus on increasing capacity.
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