Business
Aurora and Werner Launch Commercial Pilot to Autonomously Haul Freight in Texas
Werner to pilot Aurora’s autonomous trucks to provide customers with scalable technology to haul freight 24/7/365 Aurora adds additional autonomous route
About this update from Aurora Innovation, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nWerner to pilot Aurora’s autonomous trucks to provide customers with scalable technology to haul freight 24/7/365\n\n\nAurora adds additional autonomous route between Fort Worth and El Paso\n\n\n PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nToday, Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR) and Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ: WERN), a premier transportation and logistics provider, announced a collaboration and commercial pilot to test and safely deploy autonomous trucks on one of the most commercially active and critical stretches of highway in the country.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220406005552/en/Photo: Aurora\nStarting this week, Aurora Driver-powered trucks are hauling loads between Fort Worth and El Paso on behalf of Werner. This lane represents the middle leg of one of the busiest commercial thoroughfares for Werner and the U.S. trucking industry: Atlanta to Los Angeles. Introducing an autonomous route between Fort Worth and El Paso allows Werner to move freight seamlessly and reliably on a subset of one of its most voluminous lanes.\n\nThe collaboration with Werner strategically broadens Aurora’s customer ecosystem to include multiple carrier types. The pilot is designed to advance the Aurora Driver, and Aurora Horizon, Aurora’s autonomous truck product, to develop a robust service for carriers. Today, operators are accompanying each truck in the pilot fleet on weekly hauls, ready to assist if necessary. Over the next several months, Aurora and Werner expect to increase the frequency of these loads and are exploring further autonomy for vehicles in this lane.\n\nThe Fort Worth to El Paso lane is over 600 miles and takes approximately nine hours to complete. Its long-distance and monotony contribute to this lane’s reputation for being unappealing for truck drivers. By deploying the Aurora Driver on such hauls, Aurora and the companies it is working with are building a future in which autonomous trucks can handle less popular routes, while human drivers transport more convenient hauls that are conducive to desirable lifestyles.\n\nLaunching this new route is a technical and operational milestone toward deploying the Aurora Driver at scale. To start this commercial pilot, Aurora brought two new terminal sites online to service this route and built the technologi...