Aurora opens first terminal for self-driving trucks near Dallas

Self-driving truck company Aurora Innovation has announced it has launched its first commercial-ready terminal for autonomous trucks.

Aurora’s first terminal will be in Palmer, Texas, just south of Dallas. The terminal will deploy self-driving trucks for Aurora’s pilot customers. To date, those customers include FedEx, Schneider and Uber Freight. The trucks will haul freight between Dallas and Houston.

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

According to a news release, Aurora’s South Dallas terminal was designed to be commercial-ready, meaning it has features and services to enable autonomous deployment and optimize asset utilization for customers, and is in commercial use today.

The terminal will allow self-driving trucks to haul freight 24 hours a day year-round.

The terminal includes these features:

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

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

Aurora has been busy lately. Just within the past six months, trailer traffic at the terminal has tripled. Aurora is 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.

On April 3, Aurora announced that its Aurora Driver system is “feature complete.” Feature complete confirms the company has introduced the final driving capabilities needed to commercially haul freight without vehicle operators between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2024. LL

Related stories:

• Waymo, Aurora seek warning device exemption for automated trucks.
• OOIDA warns FMCSA to deny autonomous vehicle exemption.
• Manufacturers of automated trucks seek warning device exemption.