Aurora Innovation stock surges on driverless tech deal

Investing.com -- Aurora Innovation shares soared as much as 50% in Tuesday's premarket trading following the announcement of a strategic partnership with Continental and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ) aimed at deploying driverless trucks at scale. The collaboration is set to integrate Nvidia's DRIVE Thor system-on-a-chip (SoC) into Aurora's autonomous driving system, with mass manufacturing slated to begin in 2027.

The partnership represents a significant step for Aurora, a leader in autonomous truck technology, which is currently in the final validation stages of its Aurora Driver for driverless operations on public roads. The company plans to launch its driverless trucking service in Texas by April 2025. Nvidia's DRIVE Thor, featuring the advanced Blackwell architecture, will provide the computing power necessary for the autonomous vehicles to safely navigate the environment.

Continental, a top-tier automotive supplier, is tasked with developing the hardware for the Aurora Driver, ensuring reliability, serviceability, and cost-efficiency for high-volume production. The company is also working on a specialized secondary system to take control in the event of a primary computer failure, with production samples of DRIVE Thor expected in the first half of 2025 and start of production planned for 2027.

The collaboration was announced as an industry-first and is expected to change the landscape of driverless truck deployment. Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, emphasized the significance of scaling driverless trucks, stating, "Delivering one driverless truck will be monumental. Deploying thousands will change the way we live." The sentiment was echoed by Aruna Anand, President & CEO, Automotive, Continental North America, who highlighted the unique expertise required for industrializing self-driving hardware at a commercial scale.

The partnership will be on display at CES 2025, where Continental plans to showcase its latest progress with Aurora, including an early prototype of the Aurora Driver hardware and the Volvo (OTC:VLVLY ) VNL Autonomous truck, designed to integrate seamlessly with the Aurora Driver.

The market's response to the partnership reflects optimism for Aurora's future in the autonomous driving industry, as investors anticipate the potential impact of large-scale driverless truck deployment on the transportation and logistics sectors.

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Source: Investing.com