Aurora Innovation

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Aurora Innovation
TypePublic
Nasdaq: AUR
IndustrySelf-driving car
FounderChris Urmson, Sterling Anderson, Drew Bagnell
Headquarters
Pittsburgh, PA and Mountain View, CA
,
United States
Number of employees
1,600[1]
Websiteaurora.tech

Aurora, also known as Aurora Innovation, Inc., is an American self-driving vehicle technology company[2][3] based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[4][5] and in Mountain View, California.[6] Aurora is known for developing the Aurora Driver, a computer system that can be integrated into cars for autonomous driving.[7][8] Aurora was co-founded by Chris Urmson, the former chief technology officer of Google/Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving team, which became known as Waymo,[2][9] as well as by Sterling Anderson, former head of Tesla Autopilot, and Drew Bagnell, former head of Uber's autonomy and perception team.[10][11]

The company was also supported by Uber. Twenty-six percent of Aurora was owned by Uber as of December 2020.[12][13] Nvidia partnered with Aurora to provide hardware for Aurora's self-driving systems.[14][15][16] Aurora also partnered with Toyota and Denso to develop self-driving taxis.[17][18][19][20]

History[]

Aurora was founded in late 2016 by Chris Urmson, the former chief technology officer of Google/Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving team, which became known as Waymo.[2][9][21] Previously, Urmson was a member of Carnegie Mellon's Red Team, which competed in DARPA's Grand Challenges for autonomous vehicles.[22][23][24] His two co-founders are Sterling Anderson, former head of Tesla Autopilot, and Drew Bagnell, former head of Uber's autonomy and perception team.[2][11][10]

Aurora announced that it had signed deals with Volkswagen and Hyundai to develop self-driving software for commercial vehicles in January 2018.[25] At CES 2018, which took place in the same month, Nvidia announced that they would be partnering with Aurora to provide hardware for Aurora's self-driving systems, such as Nvidia's Xavier processor.[14][15][16] Aurora became the first self-driving vehicle company authorized to test its vehicles in Pennsylvania in October 2018.[26]

In May 2019, Aurora acquired Blackmore, a Bozeman, Montana-based company focusing on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) lidar.[27][28][29] In June 2019, Aurora announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to develop self-driving technology in commercial vans.[29] As a result of this partnership, the company was able to acquire Chrysler Pacifica minivans for its fleet of test vehicles.[30][31] In June 2019, Volkswagen also announced they would be ending their partnership with Aurora.[32]

Aurora expanded its operations to Texas in June 2020, bringing a fleet of test vehicles into the Dallas-Fort Worth area.[30] In July 2020, Aurora debuted its own long-range lidar system called “FirstLight.”[33] In December 2020, Aurora acquired Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), Uber's self-driving unit. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi subsequently joined Aurora's board. Uber also invested $400 million in Aurora and took a 26% ownership stake in the company.[12][13][34]

In January 2021, Aurora announced it was partnering with PACCAR to develop its first commercial product, a driverless truck. Their technology will be paired with PACCAR's Peterbilt 579 and Kenworth T680 semi-trucks.[35][34][6][36] In February 2021, Aurora partnered with Toyota and Denso to develop self-driving taxis.[17][18][19][20] In March 2021, Aurora acquired 5D lidar company OURS Technology, a silicon photonics startup.[37][38] Also in March, Aurora announced it was partnering with Volvo Group to develop driverless trucks. Of the three largest truck manufacturers, Aurora has partnered with two; the third, Daimler AG, had previously announced it was partnering with Waymo for self-driving technology.[39]

In July 2021, plans were unveiled for the company to go public in a merger with the special-purpose acquisition company Reinvent Technology Partners Y, which had been set up by Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus.[40] The deal values Aurora at $11 billion and provides close to $2 billion in new funding.[41] The merger was completed and the company went public on Nasdaq in November.[42]

Locations[]

Aurora tests its vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pittsburgh, and Dallas. In addition to its headquarters in Pittsburgh and Mountain View, the company also has offices in San Francisco, Bozeman, Montana, and Texas.[43][44]

Products[]

The company developed the Aurora Driver, a system that consists of sensors, software, and hardware. It can be installed in passenger or commercial automobiles, converting them into self-driving vehicles.[7][8][45] The Aurora Driver's software uses data from its sensors to devise a safe path through a given route, while its computer powers these components and integrates them with the vehicle.[45] The system's sensors use Aurora's FirstLight lidar, which was developed from Blackmore's FMCW lidar technology.[33][46] The first vehicle to be outfitted with the Aurora Driver was the Toyota Sienna.[47]

Conventional lidar uses pulses of light to acquire information about objects surrounding the sensor, including distance and velocity.[48] In contrast, FMCW lidar uses a low-powered continuous beam of light, enabling faster acquisition of distance, velocity, and acceleration of surrounding objects, but often requires bulky mirrors and rangefinders. By acquiring OURS, Aurora hopes to reduce the size of the FMCW lidar hardware.[49] Aurora plan to release the next generation of Aurora Driver, named "Fusion", in 2023.[48]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ https://craft.co/aurora
  2. ^ a b c d Bhuiyan, Johana (December 6, 2017). "Chris Urmson is developing the brains for self-driving cars". Vox.
  3. ^ "Report: Self-driving car startup Aurora is raising capital at a $2B valuation".
  4. ^ "Autonomous vehicle firm Aurora gears up for move to the Strip District". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  5. ^ "Aurora announces local headquarters move to the Strip District".
  6. ^ a b "Aurora gets self-driving heavy truck deal as it wraps up buy of Uber unit".
  7. ^ a b "Aurora and Volvo partner to bring autonomous long-haul trucks to North America".
  8. ^ a b Schiffer, Zoe (January 24, 2020). "Aurora is finally ready to show the world what it's been up to". The Verge.
  9. ^ a b Kelly, Heather (August 5, 2016). "Google loses lead self-driving car engineer Chris Urmson". CNNMoney.
  10. ^ a b "Shaken by hype, self-driving leaders adopt new strategy: Shutting up". The Washington Post. October 18, 2018.
  11. ^ a b Bhuiyan, Johana (December 12, 2016). "Uber has lost three of its top self-driving engineers". Vox.
  12. ^ a b Bursztynsky, Jessica (December 7, 2020). "Uber sells its self-driving unit to Aurora". CNBC.
  13. ^ a b Metz, Cade; Conger, Kate (December 7, 2020). "Uber, After Years of Trying, Is Handing Off Its Self-Driving Car Project" – via NYTimes.com.
  14. ^ a b "AI Takes Center Stage at CES: CEO Daily for January 8, 2018". Fortune.
  15. ^ a b "Self-driving startup Aurora will work with Nvidia on autonomous driving".
  16. ^ a b "Aurora and Nvidia Are Teaming Up to Build Next Gen Self-Driving Cars". Fortune.
  17. ^ a b Hawkins, Andrew J. (February 9, 2021). "Toyota teams up with Aurora and Denso on robotaxi development". The Verge.
  18. ^ a b "Toyota, Denso team with Aurora on self-driving cars for Uber, others". Business Insider.
  19. ^ a b "Toyota, Denso form robotaxi partnership with Aurora". Automotive News. February 9, 2021.
  20. ^ a b Lee, Timothy B. (February 9, 2021). "Months after buying Uber self-driving project, Aurora signs Toyota deal". Ars Technica.
  21. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (April 16, 2021). "Google veteran pans Tesla Autopilot: "We were doing better in 2010"". Ars Technica.
  22. ^ "Full Page Reload". IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News.
  23. ^ "Driven to Innovate - Carnegie Mellon University | CMU". www.cmu.edu.
  24. ^ "Aurora Is Not Building Autonomous Cars, It's Building Safe Drivers". PCMAG.
  25. ^ "America's Hottest Self-Driving Car Startup Just Joined Forces with VW and Hyundai" – via www.wired.com.
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  27. ^ "Self-driving car startup Aurora acquires Blackmore for Doppler lidar tech". The Robot Report. May 25, 2019.
  28. ^ "Fresh off a $530M round, Aurora acquires lidar startup Blackmore".
  29. ^ a b "Aurora's latest acquisition would bolster capability to build lidar sensors at scale". Automotive News. February 26, 2021.
  30. ^ a b Hawkins, Andrew J. (July 20, 2020). "Aurora will test its fleet of self-driving cars and semi trucks in Texas". The Verge.
  31. ^ "FCA partners with Aurora on self-driving tech". Automotive News. June 10, 2019.
  32. ^ Kolodny, Emma Newburger,Lora (June 11, 2019). "Volkswagen concludes partnership with self-driving start-up Aurora, in talks with Ford". CNBC.
  33. ^ a b "Self-Driving Startup Aurora Debuts its New Long-Range Lidar Called 'FirstLight'". www.futurecar.com.
  34. ^ a b Hyatt, Kyle. "Self-driving startup Aurora partners with heavy truck company Paccar". Roadshow.
  35. ^ "Aurora partners with Paccar to develop driverless trucks". January 19, 2021.
  36. ^ Smith, Jennifer (January 19, 2021). "Paccar, Aurora to Develop Self-Driving Big Rigs" – via www.wsj.com.
  37. ^ "Aurora acquires 5D LiDAR startup OURS Technology". The Robot Report. March 1, 2021.
  38. ^ "Aurora targets trucking with $2BN SPAC merger plan". optics.org. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  39. ^ Hull, Dana (March 30, 2021). "Driverless Tech Startup Aurora Adds Volvo to Trucking Partners". Bloomberg. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  40. ^ McGee, Patrick (2021-07-15). "Driverless vehicle start-up Aurora to go public in $11bn Spac merger". Financial Times. Retrieved 2021-07-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  41. ^ Tan, Gillian (2021-07-15). "Self-Driving Startup Aurora in Agreement With Reinvent SPAC". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2021-07-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  42. ^ Rosenblatt, Lauren (November 4, 2021). "Self-driving startup Aurora starts trading on the Nasdaq". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  43. ^ "Aurora Innovation to acquire Uber's self-driving vehicle unit". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  44. ^ "Aurora expands to Texas in bid to ramp up self-driving truck efforts".
  45. ^ a b "Aurora prizes independence in AV world". Automotive News. June 17, 2019.
  46. ^ "Self-Driving Technology Developer Aurora to Partner with Volvo on Autonomous Long-Haul Trucks". www.futurecar.com.
  47. ^ "Aurora Partners With Toyota in Bid to Bring Autonomy to Masses". Transport Topics. February 9, 2021.
  48. ^ a b "Aurora outlines commercial roll-out for silicon photonics lidar". optics.org. September 1, 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  49. ^ Korosec, Kirsten (February 26, 2021). "Aurora acquires a second lidar company in push to bring self-driving trucks to the road". Techcrunch. Retrieved 22 September 2021.

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