The startup’s latest update will enable its driverless trucks to cover 1,000 miles without stopping for mandatory rest breaks.
- Pittsburgh-based Aurora is on track to triple its network of driverless delivery trucks.
- The company’s latest software update will also enable trucks to drive a 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix without stopping for mandatory breaks.
- The trip takes roughly 15 hours to complete, but human drivers need to rest after 11 hours.
Aurora, the Pittsburgh-based autonomous trucking company, wants to supercharge its fleet of driverless big rigs. The company said the latest software update to its driverless hardware suite will enable its trucks to drive nonstop from Phoenix to Fort Worth.
That trip is roughly 1,000 miles long and takes 15 hours to complete, but here’s where trucks without drivers behind the steering wheel have the upper hand, because they’re not subject to the same mandatory rest breaks as human drivers. By contrast, a human driver would have to take a rest after 11 hours of driving. A second driver could take the wheel, though.
“Expanding across the Sun Belt and introducing customer endpoints enables us to provide our customers with the capacity they need to move goods at a scale that wasn’t possible before,” said Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO of Aurora. “Being a carrier is a game of margins, and if autonomy can work around the clock, it will be key to growing our customers.”
This is Aurora’s fourth software release since deploying driverless trucks on America’s roads back in April 2025. The first version validated initial driverless operations between Dallas and Houston, the second enabled night driving, and the fourth opened up routes to and from El Paso…