Autonomous truck business Aurora delays hauling freight without human drivers until April

PITTSBURGH — Autonomous truck business Aurora recent concept says it won’t commence hauling freight without humans on board until April of next year, a delay from previous statements that commercial service would commence by the complete of 2024.

The Pittsburgh business on Wednesday said the April launch of driverless semis traveling from Dallas to Houston will be “modestly later” than the business had intended.

The business told investors on its third-quarter returns conference call that it has made advancement toward ensuring its trucks will operate safely.

Remaining obstacles are “primarily in the areas of some elements of surface street driving and some elements of construction that we view on the freeway,” CEO Chris Urmson said. “We desire to have extremely high confidence in the structure as we as we leave forward.”

The business will commence with about 10 autonomous tractor-trailers and shift to “tens” of trucks by the complete of next year, Urmson said.

“This shift to our timeline will have a negligible monetary impact and does not affect our scaling efforts on our path to self-financing,” Urmson said.

Aurora also intends to haul freight without human drivers from Fort Worth, Texas, to Phoenix later in 2025, Urmson said.

Aurora in August added nearly $500 million to its equilibrium sheet with a financing raise in August, which the business expects to financing the initial phases of its way to scale up driverless trucking.