Aurora Innovation, Inc. announced the expansion of its commercial operations by launching a second driverless route from Fort Worth to El Paso. This comes as the company surpasses 100,000 driverless miles on public roads and shares its plan to deploy hundreds of driverless trucks with its next-generation Aurora Driver hardware in 2026, fortifying a clear path to meet strong customer demand.
“Six months out from launch, we’re achieving more industry-firsts, expanding quickly, and paving the way to deploy hundreds of trucks next year,” said Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO at Aurora. “Expanding to El Paso, notching over 100,000 driverless miles, and integrating our new hardware with multiple truck platforms extends our strong lead.”
Rapid Scaling and Operational Excellence
The launch of the 600-mile lane from Fort Worth to El Paso, just six months after the inaugural Dallas to Houston route, marks the fastest scaling to a second market in the U.S. self-driving industry. Staffing challenges and the difficulty of completing the 10-hour haul in a single day make the route daunting for carriers, underscoring the Aurora Driver’s value in providing reliable, around-the-clock operations. Customers on the El Paso route include Hirschbach Motor Lines, an early adopter of the Aurora Driver, Russell Transport and others.
The expansion coincides with the Aurora Driver surpassing 100,000 driverless miles on public roads. With five driverless trucks now regularly delivering customer freight, Aurora continues to maintain its perfect driverless on-time and safety record.
Next-Generation Hardware: Ready for Deployment in 2026
Aurora also unveiled next-generation hardware, which is designed to reduce overall cost by half while boosting performance and durability. Key features include:
- Increased Reliability: Built to last for over a million miles.
- Extended Sensing Range: New generation of FirstLight Lidar detects objects 1,000 meters away—twice the distance of the current generation.
- All-Weather Operation: Enhanced sensor cleaning allows the Aurora Driver to operate reliably in harsher weather conditions.
The new hardware is manufactured by Fabrinet and precedes the highly-scalable hardware being jointly developed with AUMOVIO (formerly Continental), which is slated for production in 2027 and is expected to enable the deployment of tens of thousands of trucks.
Simultaneous Platform Integration
The Aurora Driver’s common core architecture allows for seamless integration across multiple truck platforms. The new hardware is being integrated with the Volvo VNL Autonomous, where lineside integration is taking place at Volvo’s New River Valley manufacturing facility, and a new fleet of International® LT® Series Class 8 vehicles at Aurora’s Pittsburgh hardware facilities.
“The integration of Aurora’s next-generation hardware with the Volvo VNL Autonomous on the pilot line at our New River Valley facility marks an industry-first partnership and highlights the meaningful progress we are making together,” said Nils Jaeger, President of Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “By manufacturing trucks purpose-built for autonomy, we’re moving beyond prototypes and creating scalable solutions that are ready to meet the demands of a modern supply chain.”
PACCAR continues to test its autonomy-enabled truck platform at its facilities. Aurora then plans to integrate the platform with the highly-scalable hardware being co-developed with AUMOVIO.
Expanding Customer Capacity
The addition of the International LT Series vehicles is key to providing customers with greater driverless capacity in 2026. Aurora has successfully begun testing the new fleet at its closed test track. Upon completion of a closed safety case for these trucks, Aurora plans to haul freight without a partner-requested observer in Q2 2026 and already has customer interest for this capacity.
“As an early adopter, we embrace the opportunity to help define the future of freight technology,” said Richard Stocking, President & CEO of Hirschbach Motor Lines. “Integrating an additional fleet strengthens our driverless capacity — a vital advancement in ensuring we meet customer demand and deliver operational excellence.”
