Drive Interstate 45 between Houston and Dallas or Interstate 20 between Fort Worth and El Paso in Texas and you’ll see dozens of tractor trailers. These two highways are two of the busiest for truck traffic in the country. aurora innovation We operate fully autonomous semis.
“We use lasers, radar and cameras to look around, see other cars and other trucks on the road, and figure out how to drive safely,” said Chris Urmson, Aurora’s founder and CEO. He spoke with CNBC’s Phil LeBeau for more than three hours while sitting in the cab of the Aurora self-driving truck.
With 20 driverless trucks currently on the road and plans to increase its self-driving fleet to 200 by the end of this year, Aurora is aiming for significant growth in the coming years. The company’s selling point is that self-driving trucks can operate more efficiently and at lower cost than self-driving trucks with drivers behind the wheel.
“We can help them (truck drivers) save money on fuel,” Urmson said. “It allows us to move goods faster and meet our needs when we don’t have the best drivers on our team.”
Ravi Shankar, a transportation analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimates that “self-driving vehicles should be about 7.5 times more profitable than human-driven vehicles today.”
Meanwhile, Bank of America estimates that “Aurora services cost about $0.85 per mile, before human driver wages and benefits cost about $1.30 per mile, before indirect labor costs are considered.”
As the next generation of driverless trucks becomes commercially available, Aurora believes its “driver-as-a-service” business model, where customers pay based on the number of miles driven, will be attractive to trucking and transportation customers looking to reduce costs.
With a shortage of truck drivers in the United States, trucking companies are looking for low-cost, reliable service. Self-driving trucks may be on the road for up to 20 hours per day, but truck drivers’ work hours are limited by federal laws that require drivers to take breaks.
Sean Wu, CEO of trucking company Uship, said he understands the appeal of driverless trucks in terms of cost savings, but wonders how many trucking companies want to lay off drivers.
“Drivers don’t just move the rig; they have judgment, they have customer service, and they have protection,” Wu told CNBC. “There’s a lot more to think about than, ‘I’m moving a truck from point A to point B.'”
The Department of Transportation estimates there are approximately 3.5 million Class 8 semi-trucks on U.S. roads. Self-driving cars are a small part of the market, but the market is growing and Wall Street sees huge potential. Kodiak AIwith Gatic tesla The company is also developing self-driving cars.
Aurora CEO Urmson said he knows there are many skeptics, including those who continue to question the safety of driverless trucks traveling at 65 to 70 mph on highways.
“We have millions of miles of experience,” he said. “We tested it 15 million times before we put it on the road.”
When we finished transporting the cargo in Palmer, Texas, what stood out was that the transport was uneventful and uneventful. The truck veered off the highway once in less than a minute to reset its hazard lights, which had been on for some reason. Otherwise, during my three-hour drive on Interstate 45, I witnessed several double-takes from passing truck drivers who did a double-take when no one was behind the wheel.
Urmson has another 300 miles to go before Aurora’s self-driving technology delivers the package. Aurora began testing AV technology on public roads in 2022 and has since logged more than 440,000 miles. Most included a human safety operator at the wheel in case the technology malfunctioned.
After losing more than $800 million in 2025, Aurora aims to become free cash flow positive by 2028 thanks to a significant increase in self-driving trucks on the roads.
“We’ve been able to put out a schedule and we’re basically on that schedule,” he said.
