Aurora, NVIDIA, and Continental Partner to Deploy AI-Powered Driverless Trucks at Scale

Nvidia finds a partner for self-driving trucks -- and the company's stock soars

Aurora stock climbed as high as 44% in pre-market trading before paring back its gains to a 40% jump. The self-driving technology firm's stock grew by about 70% in 2024. The companies said Monday that they would work with German automotive parts manufacturing company Continental to deploy driverless trucks powered by Nvidia's (NVDA+3.43%) DRIVE Thor chips in the coming years. The Aurora Driver, which the company says will use a SAE level four system, will be mass-produced by Continental in 2027. Production samples are scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2025. Last January, Aurora told Quartz that it had more than two dozen trucks making autonomous deliveries -- albeit with a driver ready to take over -- in Texas through partnerships with Uber (UBER+2.66%) and FedEx (FDX-0.16%). Aurora had initially planned a commercial launch by the end of 2024 but pushed back that debut to improve its software. On Monday, the company confirmed it is targeting an April launch, beginning with a single truck monitored remotely on a route from Dallas to Houston. "Delivering one driverless truck will be monumental. Deploying thousands will change the way we live," Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson said in a statement. He added that Nvidia's chips will boost Aurora's ability to deliver "safe and reliable" trucks at scale. As for Nvidia, the chipmaker has its hands in more than a few self-driving pies. The company said Monday that Toyota (TM-2.49%) will use its DRIVE AGX Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology for its next-generation vehicles for driving assistance. "I predict that this will likely be the first multi-trillion dollar robotics industry," Huang added. "Our business if already $4 billion and, this year, probably on the runway to about $5 billion. Nvidia stock rose almost 3% in pre-market trading. The stock saw explosive growth last year as the artificial intelligence boom went into high-gear.

Aurora Teams Up With NVIDIA & Continental To Power Driverless Trucks: Details - Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR)

Aurora Driver targets April 2025 launch in Texas; Continental to mass-produce systems starting in 2027. Aurora Innovation, Inc. AUR shares are trading higher premarket on Tuesday. On Monday, the company inked a long-term partnership with NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Continental AG CTTAF to scale driverless trucks using NVIDIA's next-gen DRIVE Thor SoC. The Aurora Driver, an SAE Level 4 autonomous system, will integrate DRIVE Thor and DriveOS, with Continental set to mass-produce the system starting in 2027. Aurora is finalizing the validation of its Aurora Driver for driverless trucks, targeting an April 2025 launch in Texas. The system, equipped with lidar, radar, and cameras, operates at highway speeds and adapts to new environments using Verifiable AI, supported by Aurora's Safety Case for regulatory approval. NVIDIA's dual DRIVE Thor SoC will power Aurora's primary computer, running DriveOS to handle critical autonomous tasks. Production samples are expected in early 2025, with large-scale manufacturing set for 2027. Last month, Aurora Innovation opened a new 78,000-square-foot office and testing facility at Montana State University's Innovation Campus in Bozeman. Price Action: AUR shares are up 38.5% at $9.00 premarket at the last check Tuesday. Read Next: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Resigns From Board Of Autonomous Vehicle Tech Company Aurora Photo Credit: Aurora and Volvo. AURAurora Innovation Inc$9.4946.0%WatchlistOverviewCTTAFContinental AG--%NVDANVIDIA Corp$153.042.42%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Aurora, Continental, and NVIDIA Partner to Deploy Driverless Trucks at Scale By Investing.com

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aurora (NASDAQ: AUR), Continental, and NVIDIA today announced a long-term strategic partnership to deploy driverless trucks at scale, powered by the next-generation NVIDIA DRIVE Thor system-on-a-chip (SoC). NVIDIA's DRIVE Thor and DriveOS will be integrated into the Aurora Driver, an SAE L4 autonomous driving system that Continental plans to mass-manufacture in 2027. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250106085383/en/ Industry-first partnership to scale driverless trucks Delivering one driverless truck will be monumental. Deploying thousands will change the way we live, said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder at Aurora. NVIDIA is the market leader in accelerated computing, and they'll strengthen our ecosystem of partners and our ability to deliver safe and reliable driverless trucks to our customers at scale. Developing, industrializing, and manufacturing powerful self-driving hardware at commercial scale requires unique and unparalleled expertise, said Aruna Anand, President & CEO, Automotive, Continental North America. Our industry-first collaboration with Aurora and NVIDIA to deliver driverless trucks positions Continental at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology and will drive value to our business. The combination of NVIDIA's automotive-grade DRIVE Thor platform with Aurora's advanced self-driving trucking technology and Continental's manufacturing and integration expertise is set to help drive the future of autonomous trucking, helping make roads safer while driving up operational efficiency, said Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at NVIDIA. Delivering safe, highly performant and reliable driverless trucks Aurora " a leader in autonomous trucks " is in the final stages of validating the Aurora Driver for driverless operations on public roads. The Aurora Driver is equipped with a powerful computer and sensors, including lidar, radar, and cameras, enabling it to safely operate at highway speeds. Verifiable AI enables the Aurora Driver to quickly adapt to new operating domains while being validated through Aurora's Safety Case, an essential tool for regulatory trust and public acceptance. Aurora plans to launch its driverless trucking service in Texas in April 2025. NVIDIA will power the primary computer of the Aurora Driver with a dual NVIDIA DRIVE Thor SoC configuration that runs DriveOS. DRIVE Thor, built on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, is designed to accelerate inference tasks critical for autonomous vehicles to understand and navigate the world around them. As Continental and Aurora prepare to manufacture self-driving hardware at scale in 2027, production samples of DRIVE Thor are coming in the first half of 2025. Continental " one of the world's largest automotive suppliers " is developing a reliable, serviceable, cost-efficient generation of the Aurora Driver hardware, specifically for high-volume manufacturing. The company is also developing a specialized independent secondary system that can take over operation if a failure occurs in the primary Aurora Driver computer. With start of production planned for 2027, Continental will test prototypes of the future hardware kit in the coming months. Continental will then integrate DRIVE Thor with DriveOS into the primary Aurora Driver computer at its manufacturing facilities and ship the full hardware kit to Aurora's truck OEM partners for integration into customers' trucks. Continental and Aurora at CES 2025 To learn more about this news and partnership, please visit Continental's booth at CES. Continental is located at LVCC Central Plaza, Booth Space CP-715 & CP-721, where it will be showcasing its latest progress with Aurora. On display will be an early prototype of the Aurora Driver hardware by Continental and the Volvo VNL Autonomous"the flagship model of Volvo's autonomous technology platform that is designed to support diverse use cases, advanced technologies, and seamlessly integrate with the Aurora Driver. An invitation-only media event has been scheduled for January 7. About Aurora Aurora (Nasdaq: AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly to make transportation safer, increasingly accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. The Aurora Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and underpins Aurora's driver-as-a-service products for trucking and ride-hailing. About Continental Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2023, Continental generated sales of €41.4 billion and currently employs around 200,000 people in 56 countries and markets. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include, but are not limited to, the benefits of integrating AI into Aurora's product, the safety benefits of Aurora's technology and product, Aurora's ability to achieve certain milestones around, and realize the potential benefits of, the development, manufacturing, scaling, and commercialization of the Aurora Driver and related services, including relationships and anticipated benefits with partners, and on the timeframe Aurora expects or at all, the market opportunity and the regulatory tailwinds and framework in which Aurora operates. These statements are based on management's current assumptions and are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause Aurora's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Information regarding the foregoing and additional risks are described in the Risk Factors section of Aurora's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2024, as amended by Aurora's Form 10-K/A filed with the SEC on May 24, 2024, and other filings that Aurora makes with the SEC from time to time. All forward-looking statements reflect Aurora's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Aurora undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

Aurora, Continental, and NVIDIA Partner to Deploy Driverless Trucks at Scale

Aurora (NASDAQ: AUR), Continental, and NVIDIA today announced a long-term strategic partnership to deploy driverless trucks at scale, powered by the next-generation NVIDIA DRIVE Thor system-on-a-chip (SoC). NVIDIA's DRIVE Thor and DriveOS will be integrated into the Aurora Driver, an SAE L4 autonomous driving system that Continental plans to mass-manufacture in 2027. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250106085383/en/ Industry-first partnership to scale driverless trucks "Delivering one driverless truck will be monumental. Deploying thousands will change the way we live," said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder at Aurora. "NVIDIA is the market leader in accelerated computing, and they'll strengthen our ecosystem of partners and our ability to deliver safe and reliable driverless trucks to our customers at scale." "Developing, industrializing, and manufacturing powerful self-driving hardware at commercial scale requires unique and unparalleled expertise," said Aruna Anand, President & CEO, Automotive, Continental North America. "Our industry-first collaboration with Aurora and NVIDIA to deliver driverless trucks positions Continental at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology and will drive value to our business." "The combination of NVIDIA's automotive-grade DRIVE Thor platform with Aurora's advanced self-driving trucking technology and Continental's manufacturing and integration expertise is set to help drive the future of autonomous trucking, helping make roads safer while driving up operational efficiency," said Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at NVIDIA. Delivering safe, highly performant and reliable driverless trucks Aurora - a leader in autonomous trucks - is in the final stages of validating the Aurora Driver for driverless operations on public roads. The Aurora Driver is equipped with a powerful computer and sensors, including lidar, radar, and cameras, enabling it to safely operate at highway speeds. Verifiable AI enables the Aurora Driver to quickly adapt to new operating domains while being validated through Aurora's Safety Case, an essential tool for regulatory trust and public acceptance. Aurora plans to launch its driverless trucking service in Texas in April 2025. NVIDIA will power the primary computer of the Aurora Driver with a dual NVIDIA DRIVE Thor SoC configuration that runs DriveOS. DRIVE Thor, built on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, is designed to accelerate inference tasks critical for autonomous vehicles to understand and navigate the world around them. As Continental and Aurora prepare to manufacture self-driving hardware at scale in 2027, production samples of DRIVE Thor are coming in the first half of 2025. Continental - one of the world's largest automotive suppliers - is developing a reliable, serviceable, cost-efficient generation of the Aurora Driver hardware, specifically for high-volume manufacturing. The company is also developing a specialized independent secondary system that can take over operation if a failure occurs in the primary Aurora Driver computer. With start of production planned for 2027, Continental will test prototypes of the future hardware kit in the coming months. Continental will then integrate DRIVE Thor with DriveOS into the primary Aurora Driver computer at its manufacturing facilities and ship the full hardware kit to Aurora's truck OEM partners for integration into customers' trucks. Continental and Aurora at CES 2025 To learn more about this news and partnership, please visit Continental's booth at CES. Continental is located at LVCC Central Plaza, Booth Space CP-715 & CP-721, where it will be showcasing its latest progress with Aurora. On display will be an early prototype of the Aurora Driver hardware by Continental and the Volvo VNL Autonomous -- the flagship model of Volvo's autonomous technology platform that is designed to support diverse use cases, advanced technologies, and seamlessly integrate with the Aurora Driver. An invitation-only media event has been scheduled for January 7. About Aurora Aurora (Nasdaq: AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly to make transportation safer, increasingly accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. The Aurora Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and underpins Aurora's driver-as-a-service products for trucking and ride-hailing. About Continental Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2023, Continental generated sales of €41.4 billion and currently employs around 200,000 people in 56 countries and markets. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include, but are not limited to, the benefits of integrating AI into Aurora's product, the safety benefits of Aurora's technology and product, Aurora's ability to achieve certain milestones around, and realize the potential benefits of, the development, manufacturing, scaling, and commercialization of the Aurora Driver and related services, including relationships and anticipated benefits with partners, and on the timeframe Aurora expects or at all, the market opportunity and the regulatory tailwinds and framework in which Aurora operates. These statements are based on management's current assumptions and are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause Aurora's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Information regarding the foregoing and additional risks are described in the "Risk Factors" section of Aurora's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2024, as amended by Aurora's Form 10-K/A filed with the SEC on May 24, 2024, and other filings that Aurora makes with the SEC from time to time. All forward-looking statements reflect Aurora's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Aurora undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.