Aurora Expands Driverless Trucking Service from Fort Worth to El Paso

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10/28/2025 - 04:15 PM

Company surpasses 100,000 driverless miles on public roads and validates second commercial lane for driverless operations, widening its lead in autonomous trucking

New, lower-cost hardware and integration with multiple platforms position company to deploy driverless trucks without a partner-requested observer next year

Company announces third quarter 2025 results

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR), the leader in self-driving freight, today announced the rapid expansion of its commercial operations by launching a second driverless route from Fort Worth to El Paso. This comes as the company surpasses 100,000 driverless miles on public roads and shares its plan to deploy hundreds of driverless trucks with its next-generation Aurora Driver hardware in 2026, fortifying a clear path to meet strong customer demand.

Aurora’s next-generation hardware is being integrated with multiple platforms, including the International LT Series, which is slated for driverless deployment without an observer in Q2 2026. (Photo: Aurora)

“Six months out from launch, we’re achieving more industry-firsts, expanding quickly, and paving the way to deploy hundreds of trucks next year,” said Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO at Aurora. “Expanding to El Paso, notching over 100,000 driverless miles, and integrating our new hardware with multiple truck platforms extends our strong lead.”

Rapid Scaling and Operational Excellence

The launch of the 600-mile lane from Fort Worth to El Paso, just six months after the inaugural Dallas to Houston route, marks the fastest scaling to a second market in the U.S. self-driving industry. Staffing challenges and the difficulty of completing the 10-hour haul in a single day make the route daunting for carriers, underscoring the Aurora Driver’s value in providing reliable, around-the-clock operations. Customers on the El Paso route include Hirschbach Motor Lines, an early adopter of the Aurora Driver, Russell Transport and others.

The expansion coincides with the Aurora Driver surpassing 100,000 driverless miles on public roads. With five driverless trucks now regularly delivering customer freight, Aurora continues to maintain its perfect driverless on-time and safety record.

Next-Generation Hardware: Ready for Deployment in 2026

Aurora also unveiled next-generation hardware, which is designed to reduce overall cost by half while boosting performance and durability. Key features include:

Increased Reliability: Built to last for over a million miles.
Extended Sensing Range: New generation of FirstLight Lidar detects objects 1,000 meters away—twice the distance of the current generation.
All-Weather Operation: Enhanced sensor cleaning allows the Aurora Driver to operate reliably in harsher weather conditions.

The new hardware is manufactured by Fabrinet and precedes the highly-scalable hardware being jointly developed with AUMOVIO (formerly Continental), which is slated for production in 2027 and is expected to enable the deployment of tens of thousands of trucks.

Simultaneous Platform Integration

The Aurora Driver’s common core architecture allows for seamless integration across multiple truck platforms. The new hardware is being integrated with the Volvo VNL Autonomous, where lineside integration is taking place at Volvo’s New River Valley manufacturing facility, and a new fleet of International® LT® Series Class 8 vehicles at Aurora’s Pittsburgh hardware facilities.

“The integration of Aurora’s next-generation hardware with the Volvo VNL Autonomous on the pilot line at our New River Valley facility marks an industry-first partnership and highlights the meaningful progress we are making together,” said Nils Jaeger, President of Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “By manufacturing trucks purpose-built for autonomy, we’re moving beyond prototypes and creating scalable solutions that are ready to meet the demands of a modern supply chain.”

PACCAR continues to test its autonomy-enabled truck platform at its facilities. Aurora then plans to integrate the platform with the highly-scalable hardware being co-developed with AUMOVIO.

Expanding Customer Capacity

The addition of the International LT Series vehicles is key to providing customers with greater driverless capacity in 2026. Aurora has successfully begun testing the new fleet at its closed test track. Upon completion of a closed safety case for these trucks, Aurora plans to haul freight without a partner-requested observer in Q2 2026 and already has customer interest for this capacity.

“As an early adopter, we embrace the opportunity to help define the future of freight technology,” said Richard Stocking, President & CEO of Hirschbach Motor Lines. “Integrating an additional fleet strengthens our driverless capacity — a vital advancement in ensuring we meet customer demand and deliver operational excellence.”

Aurora Announces Third Quarter 2025 Results

Today Aurora also announced its third quarter 2025 results. The company’s shareholder letter and financial results are available on its investor relations website at ir.aurora.tech. Aurora will host a business review conference call today, October 28, at 5:00 p.m. ET. The conference call will be webcast on Aurora’s investor relations website and an accompanying presentation has also been posted to the website. A replay will be accessible 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 products for trucking and ride-hailing. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem, including AUMOVIO, FedEx, Hirschbach, 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, our ability to achieve certain milestones around, and realize the potential benefits of the development, manufacturing, scaling (including, but not limited to, the lane expansion strategy, fleet size and our product’s availability and capabilities) and commercialization, and realization of the potential benefits, of the Aurora Driver and FirstLight Lidar, and related services and technology on the timeframe we expect or at all, the relationships and anticipated benefits with customers and partners, the timing for developing, and the anticipated benefits of the Aurora Driver hardware, the anticipated impact of our product on the freight industry and economy, our expected market share and competitive position, the efficiency and effectiveness of our validation process and the profitability of our products and services, and the anticipated impact of our product on the freight industry and economy. 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, 2024, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 14, 2025, 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 September 30, 2025. 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.