Tech company Aurora Innovation aims to grow its lanes in the southern U.S. and validate its self-driving capabilities in rain and heavy winds.
“Looking ahead to 2026, we expect to rapidly unlock lanes across the Sun Belt,” CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson said on the Oct. 28 earnings call.
That growth will involve additional expansion within and beyond Texas, with routes between Dallas and Laredo and from Dallas to Atlanta, he said.
A recent route expansion required validating the self-driving technology against fast-moving dust storms, and the company also announced that night-time driverless capabilities began in July.
If dust storm conditions are present, the technology will slow a self-driving vehicle’s speed and, if necessary, pull over or exit the highway, according to a shareholder letter.
The validation of operations in rain and heavy wind conditions is now slated for a January 2026 software release, which is a couple of weeks later than the company initially expected, Urmson said.
The company also noted that a partnership with McLeod Software is setting it up for growth, enabling those customers to more easily integrate with Aurora's technology. That means carriers can use McLeod’s TMS to tender shipments on Aurora’s autonomous trucks, the self-driving tech company notes.
“Just one month after announcing the partnership, we executed an agreement with customer McLeod customer Russell Transport for driverless hauls on the Fort Worth to El Paso lane,” Urmson said. “That's a customer that just signed up with us and signed up with us on day 1 to operate driverlessly.”
