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Toyota's Sienna minivans, retrofitted with Aurora's self-driving
system, will be tested on highways and suburban streets in the
Dallas-Fort-Worth area, with the operation including trips
enroute to an airport.
Autonomous vehicle startups are under pressure to generate
meaningful revenue from billions of dollars of engineering
investment, but scaling up the fleet is a challenge as
technological hurdles remain.
"The route showcases Aurora's ability to safely operate at
highway speeds, a key technical differentiator that allows it to
prioritize popular and lucrative rides," the U.S. company said
in a statement.
Aurora's rival Waymo charges passengers of its driverless
minivans for rides in limited suburban areas in Phoenix, and
airport pickups are not available https://www.reuters.com/article/alphabet-waymo-idCNL1N2R80CD.
Waymo said on Monday it is ready to deploy driverless vehicles
in the densely populated San Francisco city, without giving a
timeframe for the launch.
Aurora, led by Chris Urmson, a former head of Google's
self-driving car project that has since become Waymo, said it
plans to continue adding vehicles to the fleet in preparation
for commercial launch on ride-hailing networks such as Uber.
Aurora bought Uber's autonomous vehicle unit ATG https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-atg-idUKKBN28H2RXin
2020 while the ride-hailing giant had acquired a 26% ownership
interest in Aurora.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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