DALLAS, Texas — Aurora Innovation Inc. is expanding its driverless truck routes between El Paso, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona, as well as implementing its new Partner Success Program.
“We strongly believe that engaging key partners — the people who will regularly interact with the Aurora Driver — is critical to the success of our driverless commercial product,” said Ossa Fisher, president of Aurora. “Our Partner Summit allows us to showcase the capabilities and competence of the Aurora Driver and build trust with our stakeholders that we’re on the right path to safely deploy driverless trucks.”
Aurora Partner Summit
According to a company press release, the Aurora Partner Summit brings together over 20 carriers as well as industry safety experts, regulators, first responders and law enforcement from the national, state and local level for collaborative conversations on a wide range of industry topics.
Nat Beuse, Aurora’s chief safety officer, will outline the company’s approach to evaluating the Aurora Driver’s readiness for driverless operations between Dallas and Houston through the closure of its Safety Case. Additionally, law enforcement professionals and first responders will share their experiences working with Aurora and how they are preparing for driverless trucks in Texas.
Partner Success Program
Aurora is also launching an industry-first Partner Success Program, which puts customers’ drivers and executives in the cab of Aurora Driver-powered trucks to evaluate autonomy performance before driverless operations, according to the release. To help validate the program, Aurora enlisted J.J. Keller, a trusted source in safety and regulatory compliance, to take a ride and provide feedback on the experience. The program is slated to begin in Q4 2024.
Phoenix Route Expansion
The release also notes that, as part of the company’s effort to unlock value for carriers, Aurora plans to extend its Fort Worth to El Paso lane by opening operations to Phoenix. The company expects to begin commercial pilots for customers between Fort Worth and Phoenix in the first half of 2025 with the intent to go driverless on that route later in the year. The 1,000-mile passage takes over 15 hours to complete, making it particularly compelling for autonomy.
Aurora has hauled over 7,000 loads for pilot customers across nearly two million commercial miles to date.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
It’s obliteration of untold hundreds of thousands of jobs. Absolutely not about safety or anything else but the elimination of workers for maximization of profits.