The autonomous automobile startup Aurora Innovation mentioned Tuesday it has reached an settlement with Volvo to collectively develop autonomous semi trucks for North America.
The partnership, which the 2 firms say will span a number of years and is thru Volvo’s Autonomous Solutions unit, will deal with trucks constructed to function autonomously on highways between hubs for Volvo clients. The Aurora Driver expertise stack — Aurora’s self-driving software program, laptop and sensor suite — will probably be built-in into Volvo trucks.
The announcement comes contemporary on the heels of the startup’s latest acquisition of Uber’s self-driving subsidiary and a separate cope with Toyota to develop self-driving minivans. Aurora now has partnerships with two of the three largest trucking producers — Paccar and Volvo — that produce and promote practically 50% of all Class 8 trucks within the nation.
“Our previously announced collaborations with partners such as Paccar will continue in parallel to the collaboration with Volvo,” an Aurora spokesperson instructed TechCrunch. “As Paccar’s first self-driving technology partner, the unique nature of our partnership enables us to build Paccar’s first redundant truck that will be able to operate without a safety driver, bring it to market first and deploy it broadly.”
Aurora mentioned its Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave lidar — by means of its acquisitions of firms Blackmore and OURS Technology — will probably be key to fixing autonomous long-range trucking. Lidar, or light detection and ranging radar, is taken into account to be a essential part of self-driving techniques. Aurora’s pitch is that in contrast to conventional time-of-flight lidar, its expertise supplies the long-range visibility wanted to give you the option to spot hazards with sufficient time to cease or decelerate.
The announcement additionally marks a significant acceleration for Volvo’s autonomous automobile arm, Volvo Autonomous Solutions. It’s the enterprise unit’s first deal to bring autonomous trucking to the street.
Since its founding in 2017, Aurora has quickly grow to be one of many leaders in self-driving tech, attracting backing from Amazon, Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners. The firm was based by former executives of Uber, Tesla and Google.
