Aurora Innovation NASDAQ: AUR said its second-quarter business review marked the beginning of its commercial scaling phase for driverless trucking, citing new customer agreements, the launch of its second-generation Aurora Driver platform and plans to operate 200 driverless trucks by year-end.
Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Chris Urmson said Aurora has launched a new fleet of driverless trucks based on the International LT Series and introduced Aurora Driver 2, which combines new software, second-generation commercial hardware and the truck platform. The company said it is fully allocated to exit 2026 with 200 driverless trucks in operation and is negotiating with prospective Driver-as-a-Service customers for 2027 and beyond.
Customer Agreements and Network Expansion
Aurora said it recently executed Transportation-as-a-Service agreements with Charger Logistics and Value Truck. Charger Logistics plans to use Aurora Driver-powered trucks to add capacity and improve utilization on the Dallas-to-Laredo route. Value Truck initially plans to use the technology on Dallas-to-Laredo and Fort Worth-to-Phoenix corridors.
The company also expanded operations with Volvo Autonomous Solutions, which launched commercial freight service using the Aurora Driver for DSV and AVI-SPL. Urmson said each new customer can act as a “pipeline multiplier” as logistics providers gain confidence in autonomous trucking.
Since launching driverless operations, Aurora said its trucks completed nearly 440,000 driverless miles through the end of June, with 100% on-time performance and no Aurora Driver-attributed collisions. The company expects driverless mileage to accelerate as additional trucks enter service.
Aurora also began driverless operations for Detmar Logistics between a Midland, Texas, facility and a Capital Sand mining site in Monahans, Texas. The deployment involved validating a frac sand trailer with what the company described as minimal integration work.
To support longer operations, Aurora has begun supervised testing of way-station navigation and on-route fueling. In current truck-stop pilots, personnel fuel trucks while the Aurora Driver navigates into and out of fuel islands. The company said it expects truck-stop staff eventually to use automated arrival notifications to secure, fuel and release autonomous trucks.
Hardware Scale-Up and OEM Partnerships
Urmson said Aurora Driver 2’s second-generation hardware kit is engineered for 1 million miles of operation and is intended to improve uptime and reliability. The company expects the system to reduce Aurora Driver hardware costs by more than 50%, supporting its gross-margin objectives.
The hardware includes a more efficient computer and an extended 1-kilometer range for Aurora’s FirstLight frequency-modulated continuous-wave lidar. Aurora said the range provides more than 34 seconds of reaction time at highway speeds.
Aurora expects to have 20 to 25 driverless International trucks in operation by the end of the third quarter. Its upfitting partner, Roush, has begun manufacturing at a dedicated Aurora facility, with Aurora expecting Roush to reach an annual production run rate of 1,000 trucks in October.
By year-end, Aurora expects its operating fleet to consist of International and Volvo trucks, while it phases out Peterbilt trucks that had been used with first-generation hardware. Aurora expects to reintroduce Peterbilt vehicles with its third-generation hardware in the future.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions plans to begin driverless operations of Volvo VNL Autonomous trucks powered by the Aurora Driver in the first quarter of 2027, Aurora said. Volvo has said it expects to exit 2027 with more than 300 driverless trucks and projects $3 billion in autonomous revenue within five years, according to Urmson.
Aurora is also working with AUMOVIO on third-generation hardware intended to support tens of thousands of trucks, with planned production beginning in the second half of 2027. Separately, PACCAR and Aurora are defining a path to integrate the third-generation kit into PACCAR’s future autonomy-enabled truck platform.
Regulatory and Safety Developments
Urmson said California has joined other states in permitting deployment of driverless trucks, and Aurora has submitted an application to begin required driver testing in the state. At the federal level, he highlighted the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s 62-to-2 approval in May of the BUILD America 250 Act, which includes a framework for nationwide autonomous-truck deployment.
The CEO also described a recent development-mission collision in Fort Worth involving an Aurora truck operating in manual mode. The truck was driven by a vehicle operator and the Aurora Driver system was not engaged, he said. Another vehicle entered an intersection against a red light and collided with the truck. No serious injuries were reported, though both vehicles sustained significant damage.
Aurora said its subsequent log review and simulation found that the Aurora Driver detected the red-light-running vehicle nearly six seconds before the collision and would have slowed to avoid the incident despite having the right of way.
Second-Quarter Results and Outlook
Chief Financial Officer David Maday said second-quarter revenue totaled $2 million from driverless and vehicle-operator-supervised commercial loads. Aurora reported an operating loss of $266 million, including $60 million of stock-based compensation.
- Research and development expense, excluding stock-based compensation: $164 million
- Selling, general and administrative expense, excluding stock-based compensation: $37 million
- Cost of revenue, excluding stock-based compensation: $7 million
- Operating cash use: approximately $225 million
- Capital expenditures: $31 million
Aurora issued 30 million Class A shares through its at-the-market program during the quarter, generating $215 million in net proceeds. The company ended the period with nearly $1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments.
The company reaffirmed its expectation for 2026 revenue of $14 million to $16 million, with more than half of annual revenue expected in the fourth quarter as the new fleet scales. Aurora expects its year-end fleet of more than 200 driverless trucks to represent an approximately $80 million Transportation-as-a-Service revenue run rate.
Maday said Aurora expects average quarterly cash use of approximately $190 million to $220 million during 2026, including about $150 million of full-year capital expenditures, primarily related to its capacity plan. The company expects its Driver-as-a-Service model to begin in 2027, though it anticipates a customer-by-customer transition from Transportation-as-a-Service rather than an immediate change at the start of the year.
About Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR)
Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.
The company's core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Before you consider Aurora Innovation, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Aurora Innovation wasn't on the list.
While Aurora Innovation currently has a Hold rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
The space race is growing fast, and you don’t have to have gotten in early on SpaceX to profit. This report shows seven space stocks you can buy today that may grow as rockets, satellites, defense, space internet, and new space technology become more important.
Get This Free Report
