Aurora's driverless trucks have a human observer behind the wheel again
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The Peterbilt logo is missing from the front of Aurora's first driverless truck operating in Texas. Photo courtesy of Aurora Innovation
Less than three weeks after Aurora Innovation made a splash with the commercial launch of the first driverless semi trucks in Texas, the company is putting a human observer in the driver's seat.
Why it matters: The decision is another speed bump for an industry leader after a widely watched milestone, coming just days after co-founder Sterling Anderson left to take a big job at General Motors.
The big picture: Aurora's autonomous technology will still do the driving, and the change won't affect the company's development plans, CEO Chris Urmson wrote in a blog post Friday.
- Urmson said the decision to move an "observer" from the rear of the cab into the driver's seat was made at the request of Paccar, the manufacturer of Aurora-owned Peterbilt trucks.
Between the lines: Paccar wanted someone in the driver's seat "because of certain prototype parts in their base vehicle platform," Urmson wrote, without elaborating.
- Paccar declined to comment.
- "We are confident this is not required to operate the truck safely based on the exhaustive testing (covering nearly 10,000 requirements and 2.7 million tests) and analysis that populates our safety case.
- "Paccar is a long-time partner and, after much consideration, we respected their request."
Zoom in: Per Aurora, observers had already been riding along in the back of the cab during trips expected to run into bad weather. (The Aurora Driver currently does not operate in bad weather.)
- Aurora says the truck would automatically pull itself to the side of the highway in such circumstances.
- Having someone in the back seat helps with a timely recovery because they can switch over to manual driving mode to complete the trip.
The intrigue: A short-seller's report by Bleecker Street Research, dated May 14, suggested Aurora and Paccar weren't on the same page about the timing of the "driver-out" commercial launch.
- Indeed, the Peterbilt logo had been removed or covered in photos Aurora provided to mark the April 27 launch.
- Aurora noted that for the time being, it owns and operates its trucks, and validated and approved them for driverless operations.
- Eventually, it will evolve to a subscription model, where Aurora will get paid by the mile for trucks equipped with the Aurora Driver that are sold by manufacturing partners like Paccar to carrier customers.
- Aurora has driven over 6,000 driverless miles in its company-owned trucks as of last week, per the company.
By the numbers: Aurora stock is down nearly 25% in the last five trading sessions, following Anderson's departure and the Bleecker report, though it's still up more than 120% over the last year.
What we're watching: Bleecker's analysis suggests Aurora faces difficulties as it tries to scale its autonomous technology over the next few years with Paccar and its other manufacturing partner, Volvo Trucks.
- "We are making significant progress towards driverless technology and will remove the safety driver only when we have thoroughly evaluated all factors and deem it appropriate," Volvo spokesperson Ceren Wende told Axios.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with details about Aurora's model.
