Trucking news and briefs for Friday, May 2, 2025:
Aurora begins commercial driverless trucking in Texas
With roundtrip driverless hauls between Dallas and Houston occurring on a regular basis, Aurora is the first to deploy a self-driving Class 8 trucking service in the U.S.Aurora
Aurora Innovation has successfully launched its commercial self-driving trucking service in Texas, the company announced Thursday.
Following the closure of its safety case, Aurora began regular driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston this week. To date, the Aurora Driver has completed over 1,200 miles without a driver.
The milestone makes Aurora the first company to operate a commercial self-driving service with heavy-duty trucks on public roads, the company noted. Aurora plans to expand its driverless service to El Paso, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona by the end of 2025.
“We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly and broadly. Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads,” said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora. “Riding in the back seat for our inaugural trip was an honor of a lifetime – the Aurora Driver performed perfectly and it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
Aurora’s flagship product, the Aurora Driver, is an SAE L4 self-driving system that is first being deployed in long-haul trucking.
[Related: Aurora partnerships to allow autonomous truck deployment at scale]
Aurora’s launch customers are Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines (CCJ Top 250, No. 46). Both companies have had long-standing supervised commercial pilots with Aurora.
“Aurora’s transparent, safety-focused approach to delivering autonomous technology has always given me confidence they’re doing this the right way,” said Richard Stocking, CEO of Hirschbach Motor Lines. “Transforming an old school industry like trucking is never easy, but we can’t ignore the safety and efficiency benefits this technology can deliver. Autonomous trucks aren’t just going to help grow our business – they’re also going to give our drivers better lives by handling the lengthier and less desirable routes.”
The Aurora Driver is equipped with a powerful computer and sensors that can see beyond the length of four football fields, enabling it to safely operate on the highway. In over four years of supervised pilot hauls, the Aurora Driver has delivered over 10,000 customer loads across three million autonomous miles.
Aurora’s Verifiable AI approach to autonomy blends powerful learning models with guardrails to help ensure the rules of the road are followed, like yielding for emergency vehicles. Verifiable AI also played a critical role in enabling Aurora to close its driverless safety case, as it uniquely enables the company to examine and validate the Aurora Driver’s decision making.
Aurora’s launch trucks are equipped with the Aurora Driver hardware kit and numerous redundant systems including braking, steering, power, sensing, controls, computing, cooling, and communication, enabling them to safely operate without a human driver. The truck platform was validated and approved by Aurora for driverless operations on public roads.
[Related: Aurora adding more autonomous lanes]
Electric Volvo trucks surpass 15 million miles in customer operations
Volvo Trucks North America announced this week that its VNR Electric regional-haul truck has accomplished 15 million miles in customer operations.
The company said the milestone highlights the dedication to sustainable solutions since commercial orders began in December 2020. Today, more than 700 Volvo VNR Electric trucks are operating across the United States and Canada, deployed by fleets of all sizes – from single-truck owner-operators to fleets with more than 100 battery-electric trucks.
“We know that we live in a challenging time when it comes to deploying zero-tailpipe emission vehicles. There are long delays in getting charging infrastructure, regulatory uncertainty, including the future of grants and incentives to adopting battery-electric trucks, but we have continued to see customers defy the odds and add zero emissions vehicles to their fleet,” said VTNA President Peter Voorhoeve. “Globally, Volvo Trucks is in the lead when it comes to market share with battery-electric trucks; that lead includes also leading here in North America.”
[Related: Volvo plans new long-range electric for 2025]
Volvo also noted that it’s preparing for the next phase of its electromobility journey with the upcoming Volvo VNL Electric. Built on the platform of the all-new Volvo VNL that was launched last year, this truck will feature an extended range enabled by an electronic rear axle (e-axle). This new e-axle integrates the electric motors and transmission directly into the rear axle, freeing up space for additional batteries and extending the truck’s range. The official launch of the Volvo VNL Electric will be announced at a later date.
Volvo Trucks is also continuing to expand its coast-to-coast dealer support network for battery-electric trucks, with 74 dealer locations across 29 states and four Canadian provinces. Each of these dealerships has dedicated assets to completing the rigorous safety and technical training to become a Volvo Trucks Certified Electric Vehicle (EV) Dealership, ensuring customers receive comprehensive sales and service support when they deploy zero-tailpipe emission Volvo VNR Electric trucks.
These dealerships work closely with customers throughout their electrification journey and continue to provide post-deployment support, including the Gold Service Contract – a comprehensive service and preventative maintenance solution for the Volvo VNR Electric that includes battery coverage and state of health monitoring.
