Self-driving startup Aurora Innovation has announced it will expand its testing operations to Texas, in addition to the testing it is already conducting in California and Pennsylvania.
Aurora was founded by the former lead engineer for Google’s self-driving project Chris Urmson and tests its hardware and software in Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Class 8 tractor-trailers. In a recent blog post, the company confirmed it had selected Texas because of the volume of public roads there and the state’s autonomous vehicle-friendly regulatory environment.
The startup added that it will initially deploy small fleets of its autonomous Chrysler Pacificas and later add autonomous semi-trucks along commercial routes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The company intends on first tackling the trucking market before the consumer vehicle market.
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“Whether a vehicle is moving people or goods, an investment in foundational elements like world-class perception, localization, and motion planning can’t be sidestepped,” Aurora said in a statement. “Our early focus on the complexities of surface street driving accelerates our ability to handle the hardest aspects of trucking. While this investment takes time on the front end, its payoff can’t be underestimated.”
In addition to being led by Urmson, Aurora was also co-founded by Sterling Anderson who helped lead the Tesla Model X project, and Drew Bagnell who worked with autonomous vehicles at Uber. The company has raised $690 million in funding, recently acquired Lidar manufacturer Blackmore and is also developing its own in-house Lidar.