Self-driving technology company Aurora is preparing to launch its first commercial products, including autonomous freight movement, as a subscription service. The 4-year-old startup also strengthened its safety advisory board by adding another trucking industry veteran, it announced on Oct. 15.
Aurora Horizon will offer fleets “a reliable and scalable driver supply powered by the Aurora Driver and a powerful suite of tools designed to integrate these vehicles with existing operations and maximize their uptime,” according to a company blog post on Oct. 13. “To ensure carriers have confidence in the safety and reliability of Aurora Horizon at launch, we’re working with our OEM partners and carrier customers to refine our product through a series of commercial pilots as part of our Aurora Driver Development Program.”
The transportation technology company also is creating a system to move people called Aurora Connect. According to the same blog post, it will enable vehicles equipped with the Aurora Driver to integrate with ride-hailing networks to “transport people safely and comfortably where they need to go. Whether people need to get from the airport to a hotel, from their hotel to a business district, or from their home to an event, Aurora Connect is being designed to give riders a safe, prompt, and personalized experience and to provide ride-hailing networks with a predictable and reliable supply of Aurora-powered vehicles that can respond to fluctuating demand.”
A price for the service was not announced. But Aurora said a subscription to Aurora Horizon or Aurora Connect would give customers access to:
Aurora Driver, the hardware, software, and data services needed to safely operate an Aurora-powered car or truck without a safety driver.
Aurora Beacon, the mission control system that integrates with a carrier or network’s system and app to communicate dispatching and routing, monitor vehicle health, and handle incident response.
Aurora Shield, a roadside assistance program and extended support designed to streamline service and maintenance and maximize the uptime of vehicles equipped with the Aurora Driver.
Safety focus
Aurora is also strengthening its safety advisory board with freight and trucking safety expert Karen Rasmussen, the company announced on Oct. 15.
Rasmussen is the executive director of the Independent Carrier Safety Association, a nonprofit organization focused on improving highway safety. Before that, she was president and CEO of PrePass Safety Alliance, the nonprofit owner of the PrePass truck safety weigh station bypass system. Rasmussen also served as president and CEO of the Arizona Trucking Association and has held senior leadership roles at Ryder System, the California Trucking Association, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
“In order for there to be public acceptance of self-driving technology, safety is critically important,” Rasmussen said. “The trucking industry has worked very hard for my entire lifetime to improve its safety record over the years—from better driver training and scheduling limits—and autonomous vehicles are another step in that direction.”
Aurora said its Safety Case Framework is the first public self-driving framework of its kind that applies to both autonomous trucks and passenger vehicles. The company believes it is an imperative component for any company looking to deliver commercial-ready self-driving vehicles at scale safely. Aurora has also shared best practices for implementing Safety Management Systems to help the entire industry make progress towards delivering self-driving technology safely.
“As we deploy self-driving technology at scale, first in trucking and then in passenger mobility, safety is the foundation of everything we do,” said Aurora CEO Chris Urmson. “The expertise of the safety advisory board complements the team we have at Aurora and its members offer valuable insights as we deliver this technology safely.”
Aurora’s safety advisory board offers Aurora an external perspective on its overall approach to safety and other broader industry topics, including how the company engages with regulators and the public. It also offers feedback on systematically managing, controlling, and mitigating safety risks. In addition to Rasmussen, the board includes professionals from aviation safety, insurance, emergency/trauma medicine, automotive safety, and academia.
The other safety board members are Shailen Bhatt, SVP of global transportation innovation at AECOM; Dave Carbaugh, former chief pilot flight operations at Boeing; Adrian Lund, managing member of Hitch42 LLC and former president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety; Victoria Chibuogu Nneji, lead engineer and innovation strategist at Edge Case Research; Jeff Runge, president of Biologue Inc. and former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; and George Snyder, president and CEO of GHS Aviation Group.
