Aurora Triples Driverless Network to 10 Routes and Prepares to Expand Across U.S. Sun Belt
Company announces fourth quarter and full year 2025 results – Expects to achieve positive free cash flow in 2028 with current liquidity
With latest software release, Aurora Driver is now capable of:
- Routes Exceeding Hours of Service: 1,000 mile driverless lane between Phoenix and Fort Worth extends well beyond current hours of service limitations
- Direct-to-Customer Lanes: Automated mapping supports new customer endpoints at scale
- More Uptime: Driverless operations in adverse weather increases utilization
Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) announced it is tripling its driverless network with the launch of its latest software release, which also provides the Aurora Driver with the capabilities to begin expanding across the Southern United States and serve customer endpoints in 2026.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260211346263/en/
Aurora's latest software provides the Aurora Driver with the capabilities to navigate the diverse geography and climate of the southern United States, a region home to over half of the country's population. (Photo Credit: Aurora)
"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' businesses."
The company's latest software release is its fourth since deploying driverless trucks in April 2025. The first release validated initial driverless operations between Dallas and Houston, the second validated operations at night, and the third validated El Paso.
Leveraging Generalized AI for Rapid Sun Belt Expansion
Aurora expects its newest software to provide the Aurora Driver with the capabilities to navigate the diverse geography and climate of the southern United States, a region home to over half of the country's population. Before clearing the release, Aurora executed its rigorous validation process comprising over four million tests. The release comes with:
Routes Exceeding Hours of Service
Driverless operations have been validated on the approximately 1,000-mile lane between Fort Worth and Phoenix, positioning Aurora as the first company to autonomously haul freight on a route that extends well beyond Hours of Service (HOS) limitations.
Without mandatory rest breaks, the Aurora Driver can cut transit times nearly in half and offer carriers a level of efficiency and superhuman asset utilization that is impossible for traditional single-driver fleets. Hirschbach is an early customer on the route, putting Aurora in pole position to support Hirschbach's business line that moves goods from coast to coast.
With Phoenix, Aurora is tripling its driverless network to move freight between: Dallas and Houston, Fort Worth and El Paso, El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Dallas and Laredo.
Direct-to-Customer Lanes
Aurora is leveraging Verifiable AI to build maps for new routes much faster than before. After a single manual drive, cloud-based algorithms are able to generate semantic components, which helps to build new maps with little to no human assistance. Map automation significantly reduces the time to map new routes, positioning Aurora to accelerate the rollout of new routes and customer endpoints this year.
To that end, Aurora has begun supervised autonomous freight deliveries to support multiple customer facilities, including:
- Hirschbach Motor Lines between Dallas and Laredo for Driscoll's, the largest global berry company
- Detmar Logistics between Midland and Capital Sand's mining site in Monahans, Texas
- One of the leading carriers in the U.S. from its Phoenix facility
More Uptime
The Aurora Driver can now driverlessly navigate highways and surface streets through multiple forms of inclement weather, including rain, fog, and heavy wind. Inclement weather of all types constrained Aurora's driverless operations in Texas roughly 40% of the time last year. The validation provides a step-change in potential uptime, enabling Aurora's customers to increase utilization of autonomous assets across the Sun Belt's diverse climates.
200+ Trucks by End of 2026
With 250,000 driverless miles as of January 2026 and a perfect safety record with zero Aurora Driver-attributed collisions, Aurora is laying the groundwork for scale. The progress coincides with accelerating market demand for the Aurora Driver – all of the company's commercial truck capacity is now fully committed through the third quarter of 2026.
With the capability to begin expansion across the Sun Belt, Aurora is preparing to launch its next-generation hardware kit on the International® LT® Series truck platform without a ride observer in Q2. The company expects to have more than 200 driverless trucks in operation by the end of the year.
"The era of superhuman logistics has arrived," added Urmson.
Aurora Announces Fourth Quarter 2025 Results
Today Aurora also announced its fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. The company's shareholder letter and financial results are available on its investor relations website at ir.aurora.tech. Aurora will host a business review conference call today, February 11, at 5:00 p.m. ET. The conference call will be webcast on Aurora's investor relations website and an accompanying presentation has also been posted to the website. A replay will be accessible for 30 days following the call.
About Aurora
Aurora (NASDAQ:AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly to make transportation safer, increasingly accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. The Aurora Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and underpins Aurora's driver as a service products for trucking and ride-hailing. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem, including AUMOVIO, FedEx, Hirschbach, NVIDIA, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner. To learn more, visit aurora.tech.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, those statements around our driverless operations and future financial and operating performance; our ability to meet customer demand, reduce costs and general expectations beyond that year; the benefits of integrating AI into our product; the safety benefits of our technology and product; our ability to achieve certain milestones around, and realize the potential benefits of, the development, manufacturing, scaling (including, but not limited to, the lane expansion strategy, fleet size and our product's availability and capabilities) and commercialization of the Aurora Driver and related services, on the timeframe we expect or at all; our relationships with our partners and customers and anticipated benefits that they may derive from our product; the timing for developing, and the anticipated benefits of, future generations of hardware kits; the anticipated impact of our product on the freight industry and economy; the efficiency and effectiveness of our validation process and profitability of our products and services; the regulatory tailwinds and framework in which we operate and our ability to comply with the current and future regulatory framework; and our financial performance, anticipated investment in truck fleet and expected cash use and cash runway. These statements are based on management's current assumptions and are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, please see the risks and uncertainties identified under the heading "Risk Factors" section of Aurora Innovation, Inc.'s ("Aurora") Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 14, 2025, and other documents filed by Aurora from time to time with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. All forward-looking statements reflect our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Aurora undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260211346263/en/
Investor Relations:
Stacy Feit
[email protected]
Media:
[email protected]