By Raviraj Jain and Ravi Mhatre
Autonomous transportation is one of the biggest market opportunities to emerge in our lifetime, estimated to be worth more than $9.4 trillion. But it’s a difficult problem that requires a substantial amount of capital, expertise, and time.
Aurora is among the world’s premier companies working to solve that problem, building self-driving technology for all vehicle types and a variety of use cases.
Launched in 2017, Aurora now employs more than 1600 people, including 175+ PhDs. The company owns more than 1100 patents and has built a best-in-class technology platform with its flagship product, the Aurora Driver. Aurora has also forged strategic partnerships with key players like Volvo, Uber, PACCAR, FedEx, and Toyota.
Today marks a significant milestone on Aurora’s journey. Following its SPAC merger with Reinvent Technology Partners Y, Aurora started trading on the Nasdaq as $AUR today. Lightspeed is proud to be among Aurora’s earliest investors and excited to see the company go public.
Aurora’s ambition is to deliver the benefits of self-driving safely, quickly, and broadly. Aurora will start with autonomous trucks, a $4 trillion global market, and expand into passenger mobility. This technology comes at a critical time given the ongoing shortage of long-haul truckers, as well as the global supply chain problems we’re currently facing.
Exceptional Team
When Lightspeed first began exploring investments in autonomous vehicle technology, we met with more than 100 startups across all components of the self-driving ecosystem. It became clear that, given the enormous complexities and technical difficulties involved, only a handful of companies will succeed in bringing safe and efficient self-driving vehicles to market.
Of them all, Aurora has by far the most experienced and well-respected leadership team. It starts with CEO Chris Urmson, former faculty member of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Director of Technology of the CMU team who developed the first autonomous vehicle to win the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007, Chris was CTO of Google’s autonomous vehicles program for nearly eight years before co-founding Aurora.
His CMU colleague and co-founder Drew Bagnell, now Chief Scientist at Aurora, previously led perception and autonomy architecture for Uber’s self-driving program. The third co-founder, Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson, ran Tesla’s Autopilot program and was responsible for the design and development of the Tesla Model X.
These three have attracted an all-star team of engineering talent. In addition to having the necessary vision, drive, and expertise, Chris, Drew, and Sterling also understand the complexity of the problem and have spearheaded various iterations of the self-driving platform over the last 15 years.
Partnerships that Accelerate
The other part of this equation is partnerships. Aurora has done an amazing job of partnering with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem which strengthens and accelerates its path to commercialization.
Aurora has partnered with Uber, the largest ride-hailing network on the planet, to launch its ride-hailing business in late 2024, and acquired the company’s own autonomous tech division, Uber ATG. It has also partnered with PACCAR and Volvo to develop and deploy autonomous trucks, which together manufacture 50 percent of trucks sold in the US. Aurora is working with automakers like Toyota and has begun commercial pilots with many major transportation companies.
In September, Aurora launched a pilot with FedEx, autonomously pulling commercial loads between Houston and Dallas on the I-45 corridor with vehicle operators behind the wheel. By the end of 2023, the company plans to launch its commercial trucking business in Texas where it will be autonomously hauling freight without vehicle operators.
Best-in-class Technology
Aurora has built unique technology that enables it to innovate incredibly quickly.
Aurora’s next-generation sensing suite combines state-of-the-art camera, radar, and Aurora’s FirstLight FMCW Lidar, giving vehicles the ability to see further and faster than traditional AM lidar systems. That’s a critical competitive advantage for driving safely at high speeds, which is particularly relevant for autonomous trucking.
Aurora has built a comprehensive Virtual Testing Suite that enables its engineers to iterate faster and more efficiently. In fact, with virtual testing, Aurora is driving the equivalent of more than 10,000 trips from Dallas to Houston every day.
In addition, Aurora has developed its own best-in-class HD mapping capabilities. Powered by all of the above, the Aurora Driver can successfully navigate very complex interactions on the road.
Since Lightspeed’s investment nearly three years ago, Aurora has made tremendous strides, but there’s still a long road ahead. We are confident Aurora is the right company to bring self-driving to the world and would like to congratulate Chris, Drew, and Sterling on this important milestone in their journey.
Authors
