Aurora Announces First Quarter 2026 Results

Key Terms

driverless trucks technical

Driverless trucks are heavy vehicles equipped with sensors and software that can navigate and operate without a human behind the wheel, like a robotic taxi for freight. They matter to investors because they can lower labor and shipping costs, change safety and liability profiles, and require large upfront technology and regulatory investments—factors that can materially affect the profitability and capital needs of transport, logistics, and related industries.

driverless operations technical

Driverless operations use machines and software to operate vehicles, vessels, or equipment without a human physically controlling them, similar to a self-driving car or an automated factory line. Investors pay attention because shifting work from people to automated systems can reduce ongoing labor costs, change safety and liability risks, require substantial upfront technology spending, and affect how quickly a business can scale or enter new markets—factors that influence future profitability and valuation.

Driver as a Service (DaaS) financial

Driver as a service (DaaS) is a business model where a company provides professional drivers or remote-driving capabilities on demand to operate vehicles for others, often billed on a per-trip or subscription basis. For investors, DaaS can convert fixed labor and fleet costs into flexible revenue streams, affect margins and growth potential, and change regulatory and liability exposure—think of it like renting skilled labor by the hour instead of hiring full-time employees.

supervised autonomous runs technical

Supervised autonomous runs are automated processes or systems that operate on their own but are monitored and can be interrupted or guided by a human operator. Think of it like a self-driving car with a safety driver: the system executes routine tasks to increase speed, consistency and lower labor cost, while a person remains responsible for handling exceptions, safety checks and regulatory compliance. For investors, they signal potential for higher efficiency and lower operating expenses, but also require investment in oversight, maintenance and risk controls.

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR) today announced its first quarter 2026 results. Aurora's shareholder letter and financial results are available on its investor relations website at ir.aurora.tech.

“We are hitting a new gear - we are on the cusp of launching a new platform and are on track to put hundreds of driverless trucks on the road this year,” said Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO of Aurora. “We're also seeing incredible customer momentum with early adopters like Hirschbach planning for 500 Aurora Driver-powered trucks. The industry sees the value of the Aurora Driver and what it can do for their businesses."

Business Highlights

• Next-Gen Hardware at Scale: Aurora remains on track to launch its second-generation hardware kit on the International® LT® Series vehicle, enabling driverless operations without a partner-requested observer in Q2. Aurora’s next-generation hardware is built to last for a million miles while reducing overall cost by more than half. Aurora anticipates deploying more than 200 driverless trucks by the end of the year.
• Scaling Driver as a Service: Aurora continues to see significant commercial demand. Notably, Hirschbach has plans to scale their autonomous fleet, with intent to own and operate 500 trucks through Aurora’s Driver as a Service (DaaS) business model. This represents a potential multi-year revenue stream in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with truck delivery slated to begin in 2027.
• Blue-Chip Customer Adoption: Aurora recently started driverless hauls for McLane Company, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary. Aurora now has seven customers within its driverless cohort.
• Rapid Route Expansion: Aurora validated driverless operations on the bidirectional routes between Dallas and Laredo within just six weeks of initiating supervised autonomous runs. Aurora has also opened a new bi-directional route between Dallas and Oklahoma City, where the Aurora Driver is powering supervised autonomy for a key Volvo Autonomous Solutions customer.

The company will host a business review conference call today, May 6, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. The conference call will be webcast on Aurora's investor relations website at ir.aurora.tech, and an accompanying presentation has also been posted to the website. A replay of the webcast will be available for 30 days following the call.

About Aurora

Aurora (Nasdaq: AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly to make transportation safer, increasingly accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. The Aurora Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and underpins Aurora’s driver as a service product for trucking. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem, including AUMOVIO, FedEx, Hirschbach, McLane, NVIDIA, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner. To learn more, visit aurora.tech.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, the prospects of the development, manufacturing, scaling (including, but not limited to, the lane expansion strategy, the transition to our DaaS model, fleet size, fleet ownership, and our product’s availability and capabilities) and commercialization, and realization of the potential benefits, of the Aurora Driver and related services and technology; the relationships and anticipated benefits with customers and partners (including, but not limited to, our ability to finalize and execute on customer contracts or orders, and whether customer intentions to order, such as Hirschbach’s non-binding MOU result in binding agreements and orders); the timing for developing, and the anticipated benefits of, future generations of hardware kits; the anticipated impact of our product on the freight industry and economy; and our financial performance, anticipated investment in truck fleet and expected cash use and cash runway. These statements are based on management’s current assumptions and are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, please see the risks and uncertainties identified under the heading “Risk Factors” section of Aurora Innovation, Inc.’s (“Aurora”) Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC) on February 11, 2026, and other documents filed by Aurora from time to time with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in Aurora’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. All forward-looking statements reflect our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Aurora undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260506162229/en/

Investor Relations:
Stacy Feit
ir@aurora.tech

Media:
press@aurora.tech

Source: Aurora Innovation, Inc.