How Aurora, a self-driving startup, woo automakers

Aurora is less than three years old and has not yet demonstrated its technology to the public. But the company, founded by former independent project leaders Google, Uber and Tesla, has assembled an impressive list of customers. On Monday, the company announced that Fiat Chrysler was the last manufacturer to become a partner of the Aurora.

Most independent businesses aim to create vertically integrated taxi services. Waymo of Google, for example, plans to offer driverless rides in the suburbs of Phoenix. Waymo plans to design the hardware and software for its vehicles and own and operate a fleet of taxis. Other standalone companies, like Uber, Zoox and Travel, are considering adopting a similar approach.

This model relegates car manufacturers – in the case of Waymo, Jaguar and Fiat Chrysler – to the role of anonymous suppliers. Aurora takes a different approach – an attractive approach for automakers accustomed to sit at the top of the automotive supply chain. Aurora aims to develop a battery life that can be licensed to automakers, allowing automakers to continue to manufacture and sell cars under their own brands.

Initially, Aurora's technology will likely be sold in the form of driverless taxis rather than customer-owned vehicles. Aurora has not explained exactly how it will work. Perhaps the automakers will own and operate driverless taxi fleets themselves. They may sell cars to third parties – Uber or Lyft, Avis or Zipcar – who run their own fleet of taxis. Maybe Aurora and the automakers will form joint ventures to operate the fleets. When I asked Aurora's general manager, Chris Urmson, for clarification about it a few months ago, he refused to go into details.

Whatever it is, the long-term goal of Aurora is clear. The company hopes that its platform will become an industry standard for autonomous vehicles, just as Microsoft Windows became the standard for PCs 25 years ago.

Even before the announcement today, Aurora had established important partnerships with Volkswagen and Hyundai. Treating automakers as partners rather than suppliers encourages them to use their considerable manufacturing and marketing resources to promote the Aurora platform.

"Our work with [FCA] focuses on preparing their vehicles with the interfaces required by the Aurora driver to use them safely, "wrote in an article published Monday in his blog. This investment will enable our global automotive partners to build large-scale Aurora-Driver compatible vehicles. "

The new agreement between Aurora and FCA also highlights Aurora's broader ambitions: the company will focus on commercial vehicles, which will allow Aurora to offer "various solutions to strategic customers in the worlds. areas of logistics, transit and others. "

Aurora is not the only company to want to apply its autonomous driving technology to a range of use cases. Waymo and Tesla both aim to develop autonomous semi-trailers as well as passenger cars. But it is difficult for a single company to simultaneously tackle a wide range of markets. Aurora hopes partners like FCA can help you.