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Uber Freight and Aurora Innovation announced on June 25 that they are launching a pilot program to give carriers early access to more than a billion miles in driverless deliveries.
The service, called Premier Autonomy by the companies, is designed to give carriers an early and streamlined way to purchase and deploy autonomy capabilities. The initiative aims at increasing the use of autonomous trucks by integrating the Aurora Driver technology into the Uber Freight platform. This is the latest evolution of a collaboration between the two companies in order to integrate and deploy automated technologies.
Uber Freight CEO Lior Ro said: “Uber Freight, Aurora, and other companies see a tremendous chance to democratize autonomous trucking for carriers of all sizes. This will enable them to generate more revenue, scale up their fleets, and strengthen their bottom line.” “Autonomous trucks make moving goods more efficient. This industry-first program helps facilitate and accelerate the use of autonomous trucks by our carriers.”
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We are thrilled to announce @uberfreight is one of our launch clients for driverless hauls scheduled for EOY. We’re launching Premier Autonomy – a program that reserves over a billion miles of driverless travel for Uber Freight carriers until 2030.
Read more: https://t.co/entO35V81u pic.twitter.com/PkItA23acu — Aurora (@aurora_inno) June 25, 2024
Uber Freight and Aurora started partnering in order to pilot autonomous technologies at the beginning of 2020. The Premier Autonomy Program builds on the insights gained since then about the effective and autonomous transportation of goods, , the companies said.
Through the program, Aurora provides early access to autonomous delivery to participating Uber Freight carriers until 2030. Uber Freight is Aurora’s first customer on its Dallas to Houston freight route.
“We have had a long-term partnership with Uber,” said Zac Andréoni, vice-president of business development at Aurora. “We hauled the first commercial trailer in 2021 with Uber Freight. This is a long-standing relationship, and this represents a real evolution of it into something bigger. We’re very excited about it.”
We’re working with @aurora_inno on democratizing driverless trucks
Premier Autonomy is an industry-first program that provides Uber Freight carriers with access to +1 Billion of Aurora’s driverless mile to Uber Freight carriers until 2030.
Sign up and learn more here: https://t.co/k5h4UMYJRT pic.twitter.com/rpz8xpr9f1 — Uber Freight (@UberFreight) June 25, 2024
Aurora said that the size and density of Uber Freight’s network makes it ideal for autonomous trucks deployment. It’s no secret that the market for freight is in a recession. There is overcapacity, the prices are down, and costs are on the rise. The promise of AV, Andreoni said, is to deliver a supercharged asset which can run more efficiently for hours beyond service. “It’s a pretty compelling proposition.” If you’re a carrier in the middle market and have been wondering how to get it, now you can.
Aurora will continue to move loads for Uber Freight over the short-term, with the ultimate goal of decoupling itself from the asset side.
Andreoni stated, “We are still pursuing the commercial launch of our driverless service by the end this year. We expect to be able to transport driverless for our clients after that date as a third party carrier.” “We’ll own assets and operate them for our clients as any third-party carriers would. The economies will reflect this.” But that’s a temporary model.”
Andreoni explained Aurora’s long term model, which revolves around carriers buying an autonomous vehicle asset (from one of its manufacturing partners) and subscribing Aurora technology.
“It’s going be an interesting experience — it’s different from owning a vehicle today,” he said. “This program will prepare them for the ownership experience that we expect to begin in ’26 or 27. It will take some time to prepare or onboard them. We need to make sure their network is ready.”
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