Aurora has launched its first commercial-ready terminal for autonomous trucks. The company’s South Dallas terminal is designed for driverless operations and will serve as a blueprint for Aurora’s future network of terminals.

Located in Palmer, Texas, the terminal deploys autonomous trucks pulling freight between Dallas and Houston. Pilot customers using the service include FedEx, Schneider, and Uber Freight.

As the company prepares for the commercial launch of its autonomous trucking service, Aurora Horizon, it will build up a network of terminals to house, maintain, prepare, inspect, and deploy autonomous trucks between destinations.

Terminals are also key to keeping the company’s trucks on the road to haul freight every day of the year.
Aurora’s South Dallas terminal was designed to be commercial-ready. This means it has features and services to enable autonomous deployment and optimise asset utilisation for customers, and is in commercial use today.

The terminal includes:

• Specific capabilities for driverless operations such as sensor calibration ranges, high-speed data offload, and launching and landing zones.
• Traditional services including fuelling and weigh stations to enable autonomous trucks to continuously drive without additional stops.
• On-site maintenance to optimise fleet uptime and support safe operation of trucks on the road.

“Self-driving technology will fundamentally transform how we move goods,” said Kendra Phillips, Vice President of Service Delivery at Aurora. “It’s incredibly exciting to lead the way for how to deliver commercial driverless operations to our customers and the broader industry.”

Ms Phillips leads the team that is developing the services that will support Aurora Horizon.
This includes terminal infrastructure, customer services, and operating best practices to launch a valuable product. “This blueprint for next-generation autonomous terminals will be instrumental as we deploy autonomous trucks at scale across the U.S.,” said Phillips.

In the past six months, the trailer traffic at the terminal has tripled, which mirrors Aurora’s growth in pilot hauls. Aurora is currently hauling 50 customer loads a week across its two commercial routes and expects to increase its pilot hauls to 100 loads per week by the end of 2023.

Aurora recently announced the Aurora Driver, the technology that will power its driverless trucking service, is Feature Complete. With the achievement of Feature Complete, the company says it has entered its final phase before commercial launch.

As Aurora matures its commercial operations, pilot customers are receiving a complete service from trailer drop-off to pick-up. Aurora expects its Houston terminal to be ready for commercial operation in Q3 2023, which will enable end-to-end autonomous operation on its launch lane.

The Aurora Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling semi-trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and underpins Aurora Horizon and Aurora Connect, its driver-as-a-service products for trucking and ride-hailing. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem, including Toyota, FedEx, PACCAR, Volvo Trucks, Uber, Uber Freight, US Xpress, Werner, Covenant, Schneider, and Ryder.