Aurora’s beacon exemption removes one of the practical tasks that still assumed a human would be aboard every commercial truck
Aurora Innovation expects to fit its driverless system to 20 trucks a week with upfitting partner Roush from early December, as it builds annual capacity beyond 1,000 vehicles. Federal regulators have meanwhile granted a five-year exemption letting stopped driverless trucks use cab-mounted beacons in place of hand-placed roadside warnings.
More than 20 driverless trucks are already built and joining the fleet, and the December rate equates to about 1,000 a year. Volvo is separately fitting the Aurora Driver on its own assembly line, with Volvo and PACCAR preparing for full OEM industrialisation.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ruling applies across the industry and removes a task with no obvious owner in a truck carrying nobody. Aurora says it showed its beacons would likely match or exceed the safety of existing rules.
Charger Logistics has signed a non-binding agreement for 500 trucks for delivery in 2027 and 2028. Aurora closed the quarter with cash and short-term investments above US$1bn.
In a statement, Chris Urmson, Co-founder and Chief Executive of Aurora, said: “We have reached a defining inflection point for our business and our industry. The Aurora Driver is hauling freight for major carriers with nobody behind the wheel, our assembly lines are ramping, and our OEM and Tier 1 partners are preparing for high-volume production. We’ve built an ecosystem designed to put tens of thousands of trucks on the road by the end of the decade.”
Source: Aurora
