Aurora Innovation, Inc.,

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Aurora, is an American

self-driving vehicle Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle (car, aircraft, watercraft, or otherwise).Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Lanzon, A.,Group Coordinated Control o ...

technology company based in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania and in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

. Aurora is known for developing the Aurora Driver, a computer system that can be integrated into cars for autonomous driving. Aurora was co-founded by

Chris Urmson Chris Urmson is a Canadian engineer, academic, and entrepreneur known for his work on self-driving car technology. He cofounded Aurora Innovation, a company developing self-driving technology, in 2017 and serves as its CEO. Urmson was instrument ...

, the former chief technology officer of

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

Alphabet Inc Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and se ...

.'s self-driving team, which became known as

Waymo Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google. Waymo opera ...

, as well as by Sterling Anderson, former head of

Tesla Autopilot Tesla Autopilot is a suite of advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) features offered by Tesla that amounts to SAE International Level 2 vehicle automation. Its features are lane centering, traffic-aware cruise control, automatic lane cha ...

, and Drew Bagnell, former head of

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

's autonomy and perception team. The company was also supported by Uber. Twenty-six percent of Aurora was owned by Uber as of December 2020.

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

partnered with Aurora to provide hardware for Aurora's self-driving systems. Aurora also partnered with

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

and Denso to develop

self-driving taxi A robotaxi, also known as robo-raxi, self-driving taxi or driverless taxi, is an autonomous car (SAE automation level 4 or 5) operated for a ridesharing company. Some studies have hypothesized that robotaxis operated in an autonomous mobility on ...

History

Aurora was founded in 2017 by

, the former chief technology officer of

.'s self-driving team, which became known as

. Previously, Urmson was a member of

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People * Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name * Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie *Carnegie Building (Troy, New York), on the campus of Rensselaer Polyt ...

's Red Team, which competed in

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

Grand Challenges Grand Challenges are difficult but important problems set by various institutions or professions to encourage solutions or advocate for the application of government or philanthropic funds especially in the most highly developed economies Gould, M. ...

for autonomous vehicles. His two co-founders are Sterling Anderson, former head of

, and Drew Bagnell, former head of

's autonomy and perception team. Aurora announced that it had signed deals with

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

and

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

to develop self-driving software for commercial vehicles in January 2018. At CES 2018, which took place in the same month,

announced that they would be partnering with Aurora to provide hardware for Aurora's self-driving systems, such as Nvidia's Xavier processor. Aurora became the first self-driving vehicle company authorized to test its vehicles in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in October 2018. In May 2019, Aurora acquired Blackmore, a

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city of th ...

-based company focusing on

Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Continuous-wave radar (CW radar) is a type of radar system where a known stable frequency continuous wave radio energy is transmitted and then received from any reflecting objects. Individual objects can be detected using the Doppler effect, whi ...

(FMCW)

lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

. In June 2019, Aurora announced a partnership with

Fiat Chrysler Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) was an Italian-American multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of Car, automobiles, commercial vehicles, List of auto parts, auto parts and production systems. The Italian holding compan ...

Automobiles to develop self-driving technology in commercial vans. As a result of this partnership, the company was able to acquire

Chrysler Pacifica Chrysler Pacifica is a nameplate used by Chrysler for a variety of vehicles. The name was first used on a luxury minivan concept vehicle in 1999, and later a crossover concept in 2002. From 2004 to 2008, it was used on a mid-size crossover, and ...

minivans for its fleet of test vehicles. In June 2019, Volkswagen also announced they would be ending their partnership with Aurora. Aurora expanded its operations to Texas in June 2020, bringing a fleet of test vehicles into the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In July 2020, Aurora debuted its own long-range lidar system called “FirstLight.” In December 2020, Aurora acquired Advanced Technologies Group (ATG),

's self-driving unit. Uber CEO

Dara Khosrowshahi Dara Khosrowshahi ( fa, دارا خسروشاهی, ; born May 28, 1969) is an Iranian-American businessman and the chief executive officer of Uber. Khosrowshahi was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggreg ...

subsequently joined Aurora's board. Uber also invested $400 million in Aurora and took a 26% ownership stake in the company. In January 2021, Aurora announced it was partnering with

PACCAR Paccar Inc is an American ''Fortune'' 500 company and counts among the largest manufacturers of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the world, and has substantial manufacturing in light and medium vehicles through its various subsidiaries. It was o ...

to develop its first commercial product, a driverless truck. Their technology will be paired with PACCAR's

Peterbilt Peterbilt Motors Company is an List of American truck manufacturers, American truck manufacturer. Established in 1939 from the acquisition of Fageol, Fageol Truck and Motor Company, Peterbilt specializes in the production of heavy-duty (Truck c ...

579 and Kenworth T680 semi-trucks. In February 2021, Aurora partnered with Toyota and Denso to develop

s. In March 2021, Aurora acquired 5D lidar company OURS Technology, a silicon photonics startup. Also in March, Aurora announced it was partnering with

Volvo Group The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

to develop driverless trucks. Of the three largest truck manufacturers, Aurora has partnered with two; the third,

Daimler AG The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

, had previously announced it was partnering with Waymo for self-driving technology. In July 2021, plans were unveiled for the company to go public in a merger with the

special-purpose acquisition company A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional i ...

Reinvent Technology Partners Y, which had been set up by

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

and

Mark Pincus Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as ...

. The deal values Aurora at $11 billion and provides close to $2 billion in new funding. The merger was completed and the company went public on Nasdaq in November. In March 2022, Aurora unveiled its test fleet of autonomous

Toyota Sienna The Toyota Sienna is a minivan manufactured and marketed by Toyota primarily for the North American and select East Asian markets. It is named for the Italian city of Siena, in the region of Tuscany. It replaced the first generation Previa van ...

robotaxi A robotaxi, also known as robo-raxi, self-driving taxi or driverless taxi, is an autonomous car (SAE automation level 4 or 5) operated for a ridesharing company. Some studies have hypothesized that robotaxis operated in an autonomous mobility on ...

. Following this, In May 2022, Aurora announced the development of the Aurora Beacon platform. The platform is a cloud-based mission control system designed for customers to optimise operations of autonomous vehicles via real time metrics such as status, location, and health of vehicles. In May 2022, Aurora announced the expansion of the organisations self-driving freight pilot with FedEx. The expansion is to include a new lane from Fort Worth to El Paso, Texas. The new lane challenged the company for its longest freight truck journey of about 600 miles, in which they will operate on a weekly basis. As of May, Aurora and FedEx have completed a total of 60,000 miles with zero safety incidents, according to the company.

Locations

Aurora tests its vehicles in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, and

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. In addition to its headquarters in

and Mountain View, the company also has offices in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Products

The company developed the Aurora Driver, a system that consists of sensors, software, and hardware. It can be installed in passenger or commercial automobiles, converting them into self-driving vehicles. The Aurora Driver's software uses data from its sensors to devise a safe path through a given route, while its computer powers these components and integrates them with the vehicle. The system's sensors use Aurora's FirstLight lidar, which was developed from Blackmore's FMCW lidar technology. The first vehicle to be outfitted with the Aurora Driver was the

. Conventional lidar uses pulses of light to acquire information about objects surrounding the sensor, including distance and velocity. In contrast, FMCW lidar uses a low-powered continuous beam of light, enabling faster acquisition of distance, velocity, and acceleration of surrounding objects, but often requires bulky mirrors and rangefinders. By acquiring OURS, Aurora hopes to reduce the size of the FMCW lidar hardware. Aurora plan to release the next generation of Aurora Driver, named "Fusion", in 2023.

References

External links

* {{Self-driving cars and enabling technologies Self-driving car companies Electric vehicles Companies based in Mountain View, California Companies based in Pittsburgh Companies listed on the Nasdaq Car manufacturers of the United States Special-purpose acquisition companies

History

Locations

Products

See also

References

External links