Uber Freight and Aurora Innovation herald driverless roundtrip hauling milestone

Earlier this week, Chicago-based Uber Freight, an enterprise technology company powering intelligent logistics, with a suite of end-to-end logistics applications, managed services and an expansive carrier network, heralded what it called a groundbreaking milestone, through its ongoing collaboration with Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc., a provider of self-driving technology.

Uber Freight said that since last month Aurora’s self-driving trucks have been completing roundtrip hauls and delivering live commercial freight without a driver behind the wheel, making it the, “first logistics platform to offer commercial freight on public roads with fully driverless Class 8 trucks.”

An Uber Freight spokesman told LM that Uber Freight and Aurora have been moving autonomous loads together for several years as part of Uber Freight’s broader strategy to integrate autonomous trucks into the freight ecosystem.

“Since April, we’ve continued to scale these efforts across key lanes in Texas [between Dallas and Houston], building toward the future of fully driverless operations,” he said. “Our collaboration is focused on long-term industry-wide adoption and seamless back-end integration, and we’re excited to finally offer fully driverless capacity to our shippers.” 

What’s more, the Uber Freight spokesman cited various accomplishments across its AV carriers, including:  

• More than 500,000 autonomous miles on public roads hauling freight;
• Freight moved for more than 20 shippers across multiple industries; and
• Goods delivered including everyday essentials like pet food, paper products, beverages, appliances, and packaging materials

Uber Freight also works with multiple AV carriers, including Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Waabi, according to the spokesman.

“We are also working with fleets on our network to help them gain priority access to the Aurora Driver technology through our Premier Autonomy Program, which will further expand the carrier base deploying AV technology on our network,” he said.

In an Uber Freight blog posting, Lior Ron, the company’s founder and CEO, said that this milestone is a powerful example of what is possible when innovation meets logistics leadership.

“Together with Aurora, we’re unlocking a future where autonomous trucks make supply chains more efficient and reliable,” said Ron. “That’s the kind of value shippers across the industry are looking for—and why we’re committed to building a more intelligent and resilient freight network.”

To that end, ways in which AV’s are making supply chains more efficient and reliable are apparent on various fronts, according to the Uber Freight spokesman, including: strained freight networks; the average age of a truck driver is 46 years old, coupled with high turnover; and rising transportation costs.  

“Autonomous trucks increase capacity, reliability, and efficiency, especially when it comes to tackling long-haul routes—the part of trucking that’s hardest on drivers and the least efficient,” he said. “Autonomous trucks enable a system where human drivers will handle first and last-mile deliveries, staying closer to home and their families, while autonomous trucks service the middle on-highway driving. This allows more freight to move faster and more efficiently, especially during nights and off-peak hours which further reduces congestion on roads. Meanwhile, the absence of Hours of Service (HOS) regulations on autonomous trucks enables faster transit times, and capacity is more reliable since AVs can fill gaps in drivers’ schedules. AVs can also offer sustainability benefits with less fuel consumption.”

Uber Freight said that its focus on autonomous trucking got underway in 2021 through strategic partnerships commercializing AV technology. And it explained that with the Aurora Driver—an SAE L4 self-driving system including a ruggedized, vehicle-agnostic, high-speed computing platform that ingests sensor data, runs the Aurora software, and controls the vehicle, initially being deployed in long-haul trucking—integrated with Uber Freight’s APIs, Uber Freight’s internal tooling and automation features can seamlessly, tender, book, track, and make updates in real-time without human intervention. Aurora said that, to date, the Aurora Driver has completed more than 1,200 miles without a driver.

Aurora CEO and Co-Founder Chris Urmson said that the company was founded to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.

“Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads,” said Urmson. “Riding in the back seat for our inaugural trip was an honor of a lifetime—the Aurora Driver performed perfectly and it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

Aurora noted that in kicking off its driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston, upon the completion of its safety case, which it said is the first self-driving framework to address the safety of both autonomous trucks and passenger cars to help it evaluate the entire development lifecycle for its trucking and passenger mobility products in order to deliver a safe and scalable product to its partners and customers.

Going forward, Uber Freight said it is preparing to help Aurora expand driverless operations to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025.