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 humanobserverin 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.
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.
"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."
The intrigue: A 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. (Bleecker Street is a short seller, with an active bet that the price of Aurora shares will fall.)
