Aurora CEO Chris Urmson discusses the future of autonomous trucking after unveiling the company's second-generation driverless trucks. In this exclusive interview with CNBC, Urmson explains Aurora's expansion plans, the evolution of self-driving freight technology, safety improvements, commercialization, and how autonomous trucks could transform the global logistics and transportation industry.
"This Is The Future Of Trucking" | Aurora CEO Chris Urmson On Driverless Trucks
"We're Just Getting Started" | Aurora CEO Chris Urmson Reveals Autonomous Truck Plans
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What Chris Urmson said
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Chris Urmson, CEO of Aurora Innovation, discussed the company's second-generation driverless trucks, which will allow operations without a person in the cab, scaling from a handful to hundreds of trucks by end of 2026. He highlighted safety benefits, citing 500,000 collisions and 5,000 deaths annually involving heavy trucks, and a 10% fuel economy improvement. The Aurora driver can operate over 20 hours a day versus the 11-hour human limit. Urmson detailed expansion plans, including working with regulators and testing in new areas. He mentioned a third-generation hardware with partner Movia, expected to scale to tens of thousands of trucks by end of next year. He addressed driver shortages, noting a projected shortfall of a million drivers over the next decade, and discussed the recovering freight market.
Key takeaways
Aurora expects to have hundreds of driverless trucks by end of 2026, with no one behind the wheel.
Aurora's second-generation trucks will be built on the International LT platform, enabling true driverless operation.
Aurora's autonomous trucks achieve about 10% better fuel economy compared to human-driven trucks.
Aurora plans to launch third-generation hardware with Movia at the end of next year, scaling to tens of thousands of trucks.
Aurora has completed over 400,000 miles of driverless operation, though with an observer in the vehicle.
0:00You just announced your second generation of driverless autonomous trucks. What's going into this?
0:32And when you say hundreds of trucks, I think the numbers I saw 200 expected to be delivered by the end of 2026?
0:51The trucks they already have deployed on the roads, are they doing something similar or do they still have somebody sitting in the cab?
1:25What does it mean in terms of cost savings and transportation dynamics and hours being spent on the roads and all of these things that are factoring into a bigger broader economic picture right now that includes inflationary pressures?
3:00What goes into expanding that, especially when I would imagine you're navigating all kinds of regulatory frameworks on a state level and a local level and the like?
4:10How does that speak to where we are in terms of the technology and the capabilities of the technology and the maturity of it now?
4:50So, in terms of innings and what it takes to fully realize mainstream driverless capabilities, what are your thoughts?
5:46So, if you have more trucks that are autonomous that come to the road, what does that mean in terms of ramping the fleets?
Joining me now, Chris Urmson, the CEO and co-founder of Aurora Innovation. Chris, it's great to speak with you. Big news for the company this week. You just announced your second generation of driverless autonomous trucks. What's going into this?
Yeah, this is a really exciting moment for us as a company. So, we've been on the road with driverless trucks for the last year, but now we have our second generation which allows us to start to build for scale. So, going from a handful of trucks to we expect hundreds of trucks by the end of this year.
That's right. And these will be trucks operating in, you know, places like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and they'll be operating without a person behind the wheel hauling goods for our customers.
So, we've done over 400,000 miles driverlessly, but we have had an observer in the vehicle and they've been sat there, but their job has not been to kind of keep the truck safe. With this next generation truck that we're bringing on, this International LT platform, we'll actually be able to have nobody behind the wheel on these trucks, and that really unlocks the value for our customers where we can make the road safer, where we can make them more fuel-efficient, we can help them build their businesses.
Yeah, and in this driver as a service model that Aurora is pioneering here, what does it mean for customers? What does it mean in terms of cost savings and transportation dynamics and hours being spent on the roads and all of these things that are factoring into a bigger broader economic picture right now that includes inflationary pressures?
Yeah, we think this is good for everyone. This is going to make our roads safer. So, today about 500,000 collisions happen with heavy trucks and about 5,000 people die in collisions with heavy trucks. And we think we can drive that towards zero. On the fuel economy front, for trucks that are self-driven and trucks where our amazing human drivers operate them, we're seeing about a 10% improvement in fuel economy. And so that's great for our customers, the trucking company. It's great for their customers, people who are trying to get goods places, but it's also great for the environment. That's 10% fewer emissions out in the world. And then finally, today someone driving a truck is limited to 11 hours a day driving that vehicle. And that's for really good reasons. This is a tough job, and we need those people at their best. We need them paying attention. But the Aurora driver just doesn't get tired. It doesn't have to stop. And so it can be operating 20 hours plus a day. And that means that berries can get from a farm to the grocery store that much quicker. If you're a farmer, you can go farther with your goods. And if you're a customer, you're going to get fresher groceries. And all of this is going to drive down the cost of trucking, which means that for you and I, consumers in this space, you know, it should help reduce costs for us as well.
Currently operating on 10 routes in the US Sun Belt. Plans to expand that. What goes into expanding that, especially when I would imagine you're navigating all kinds of regulatory frameworks on a state level and a local level and the like?
Yeah. So you know, when we think about expanding the trucks where they drive, we really think about two things. One is making sure we stay in contact with the appropriate regulators. So we go out and connect and make sure we're working both with our federal agencies, but also with the state transportation agencies, with local police departments. We've worked very closely with the safety folks in Texas, for example, practicing with them, helping teach them how to interact with these trucks. But then we need to go and also make sure that the truck has all of the capabilities to go drive somewhere new. And so we actually will put the truck through a giant test. When we release this second-generation driver, we gave it millions and millions of tests that it passed with flying colors. And so, we're excited to be on the road and as we go to new places, we just see if there's anything new, any new thing about the place it's going to drive, we add that to the test, make sure it's good, and so we'll have confidence and certainty that this thing can operate safely on the road.
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