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Aurora, the developer of autonomous driving technology led by a trio of industry veterans, has signed a partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to determine how to integrate its "pilot" into commercial vehicles of the FCA. By "driver", Aurora refers to its complete autonomous driving system, all the hardware and software used to guide a vehicle around the world. And while the rest of the ad is vague, it suggests an open strategy from Aurora.
Alex Davies covers autonomous vehicles and other transport machines for WIRED.
The two companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, nor when and how Aurora's stand-alone technology could fit into these vehicles. The FCA's commercial vehicle lineup includes Ram vans and vans that use huge diesel engines to haul six tonnes or more, used by companies to transport goods and materials to cities and construction sites. ; this offers Aurora a way to enter the logistics sector.
Aurora was founded in late 2016 by Chris Urmson, Sterling Anderson and Drew Bagnell, formerly of Google, Tesla and Uber, respectively. Urmson CEO relies on the value of the experience, knowing which approaches work and which ones are not working.
Aurora, already working with VW, Hyundai and Byton, will now explore how to integrate its autonomous driving technology with Fiat Chrysler commercial vehicles, such as the Ram 5500 2019.
FCA US LLC
Apparently, this experience shows that it is very open to choose partners. Aurora has similar contracts underway with Volkswagen, Hyundai and the Byton electric vehicle startup. He has integrated his system with a variety of vehicles, including sedans, SUVs and a semi-trailer truck.
For its part, FCA is supplying the Pacifica hybrid minivans that Waymo uses for its tests and its teleportation service to and from Arizona. This type of cooperation is particularly useful for autonomous developers. Instead of hacking car computers and sticking their sensors on the roof bars, they can more seamlessly integrate software and hardware into their robotic carts. What builders get from the deal is less obvious. It should be noted that the companies with which Aurora is a partner do not have particularly robust internal operations.
The addition of commercial vans and vans to his quiver is remarkable: it extends the areas in which Aurora is deploying its technology. Competitors such as Waymo, Uber, Ford and GM focused on the robotics of the running sector and offered their own services, similar to taxis. Several new, smaller companies have been involved in long haul trucking and are considering upgrading their trailers with gadgets. (Waymo is also used to trucking, Uber was used to doing this.) Zoox and Nuro create entirely new vehicles, designed for this purpose for local transportation and deliveries, respectively.
In a sense, Aurora wants to generalize. He is open to using his autonomous driving technology in any type of vehicle, for any purpose. From another perspective, he is a specialist. While competitors compete to manufacture their own vehicles and manage their own logistics operations, the company remains focused on its driver system.
You can read this openness as a lack of direction, but that may be the way to go. Despite all the hype around autonomous driving – a space planned by Intel could add $ 7 trillion to the global economy by 2050 – no one has made any money yet. It is not yet clear whether trucking companies can please their investors without making the serious decision to release the driver from the cabin (all operations so far have kept a human in the driver's seat). The ongoing struggles of Uber and Lyft show how difficult it is to make money from the race. So, for now, Aurora remains open, ready to go in any direction that looks promising. And whatever the outcome of this agreement with the FCA, it will be just one bet among others.
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