Aurora Innovation Shares Surge with Driverless Technology Deal
Investing.com -- Aurora Innovation shares rose by up to 50% in pre-market trading on Tuesday following the announcement of a strategic partnership aimed at deploying autonomous trucks at scale with Continental and Nvidia. The collaboration seeks to integrate Nvidia’s DRIVE Thor system-on-chip (SoC) technology with Aurora’s autonomous driving system, with series production set to begin in 2027.
This partnership represents a significant step for Aurora, which is a leader in autonomous truck technology and is currently in the final validation stages for its Aurora Driver's driverless operations on public roads. The company plans to launch its driverless truck service in Texas by April 2025. Nvidia's DRIVE Thor, equipped with the advanced Blackwell architecture, will provide the necessary computing power for safe navigation of autonomous vehicles.
Continental, a leading automotive supplier, has been tasked with developing hardware for the Aurora Driver, ensuring reliability, serviceability, and cost efficiency for mass production. The company is also working on a dedicated secondary system that will take control in the event of a primary computer failure. Production samples of DRIVE Thor are expected to be ready in the first half of 2025, with series production slated to begin in 2027.
The collaboration has been announced as a first in the industry and is expected to change the landscape for the deployment of autonomous trucks. Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, emphasized the importance of scaling up driverless trucks, stating, "Delivering a driverless truck will be monumental. Deploying thousands will change our way of life." This view was echoed by Aruna Anand, President and CEO of Continental North America, who highlighted the unique expertise required to industrialize self-driving hardware at a commercial scale.
The partnership will be showcased at CES 2025, where Continental plans to present its latest developments with Aurora, including an early prototype of the Aurora Driver hardware and the Volvo VNL Autonomous Truck designed to seamlessly integrate with the Aurora Driver.
The market's reaction to the partnership reflects investors' optimism about the potential impact of large-scale autonomous truck deployment on the transportation and logistics sectors and Aurora's future in the autonomous driving industry.