Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation, a self-driving technology company, recently launched a second driverless route from Fort Worth to El Paso. The launch comes six months after the inaugural Dallas to Houston route began.
This is the fastest scaling to a second market in the U.S. self-driving industry and coincides with the Aurora Driver, a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, surpassing 100,000 driverless miles on public roads.
Five driverless trucks now travel the route that takes 10 hours to complete. The route is difficult for human drivers to make in a single day, and carriers face staffing challenges. Hirschbach Motor Lines, an early adopter of the Aurora Driver, Russell Transport and other customers use the El Paso route.
“Six months out from launch, we’re achieving more industry-firsts, expanding quickly, and paving the way to deploy hundreds of trucks next year,” Chris Urmson, Aurora co-founder and CEO, said. “Expanding to El Paso, notching over 100,000 driverless miles, and integrating our new hardware with multiple truck platforms extends our strong lead.”
Aurora successfully began testing a new fleet at its closed test track. The company plans to deploy hundreds of driverless International LT Series trucks with its next-generation Aurora Driver hardware next year. The addition will provide customers with greater driverless capacity.