USA / Germany – Earlier this month, it was announced that start-up autonomous driving software developer, Aurora Innovations Inc of Mountain View, California, USA, has partnered with German automotive parts company Continental AG of Hanover, to develop jointly autonomous driving systems for trucks. This partnership is expected to leverage Aurora’s latest beta 5.0 autonomous driving software (Aurora Driver) currently under fleet management testing with pilot customers including Uber Freight and FedEx in Texas, USA. With the anticipated U.S. commercial launch next year, the software will come with a subscription service called Aurora Horizon. Continental has agreed to provide the hardware for future iterations of the Aurora Driver, starting in 2027, dubbed as a “hardware-as-a-service” business relationship.

Aurora states that this partnership will help ramp up the commercial launch and bring down costs once it is available to freight carriers. Both companies believe that autonomous driving has the potential to revolutionise the freight transportation industry, increasing efficiency and eliminating the issue of driver shortages currently seen in Europe.