Self-Driving Tech Company Raises Another $483 Million

Self-driving tech company Aurora Innovation has raised $483 million in a sale of shares.

The sum significantly exceeded the $420 million of stock the Pittsburgh-based firm had anticipated selling and adds to the $1 billion of liquidity that Aurora had at the end of June. Last year, it raised $820 million from a public and private offering of its stock.

The latest share sale will prove significant, with a spokesperson telling IOT World Today: “It gives us financial runway past our initial driverless deployment and well into 2026, when we expect to scale our business.”

Aurora is prioritizing commercializing self-driving trucks and attributes its latest success to the quality of its Aurora Driver tech, which it claims is the industry’s most advanced driverless stack.

It comprises AI software, dual computers, lidar, high-resolution cameras and radar.

The company showcased the progress the Aurora Driver has enabled it to make towards driverless deployment to investors and analysts at a demo at its Pittsburgh test track earlier this year, and now claims it is positioned to “transform” the trucking industry.

The spokesperson said Aurora’s “credible path to scale” was illustrated by the deal it announced with Uber Freight in June.

The long-term agreement will see the pair deploy driverless trucks between Dallas and Houston in Texas, having worked together using autonomous trucks with safety drivers to deliver freight for a number of years.

Related:Aurora’s Driverless Truck Tech Close to Commercialization

The spokesperson added: “We’re also hauling 140 weekly loads for pilot customers. As of the end of last month [July], we’d hauled 6,785 loads over 1.8 million commercial miles, with nearly 100% on-time performance for our pilot customers.” These include FedEx and Schneider.

Aurora’s confidence is further bolstered by the fact it has trucking platforms that are production-ready.

In May, for example, the Volvo VNL Autonomous was unveiled at the ACT Expo in Las Vegas. The Class 8 semi was purpose built to integrate Aurora’s self-driving tech, and is being built at Volvo’s flagship New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia, where the first truck recently came off the line.

Aurora also has a fleet of Peterbilts, which feature its latest generation of commercial launch-ready hardware, including redundant systems.

And its partnership with Continental – which was expanded in January of this year – will allow the German giant to industrialize the Aurora Driver and manufacture it at scale in 2027. 

Aurora CEO Chris Urmson claimed the latest financial backing demonstrates the faith large-scale investors have in Aurora. 

Related:Uber Freight Expands Aurora Driverless Truck Partnership

“They have confidence in our leadership and responsible approach to technology,” he said. “And they recognize our partner ecosystem is unmatched in the industry, putting us on a path to scaling a highly profitable business.”

And he added: “I feel energized by this momentum as we prepare to launch driverless trucks in Texas, planned for the end of this year.”