Two more companies signed on to use Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation’s driverless trucks on regional routes. [Photo: Aurora Innovation]
Two more carriers are putting driverless heavy-duty trucks on the busy Interstate 35 shipping route from Dallas to Laredo.
Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation has signed agreements with Buckeye, Arizona-based Value Truck and Brampton, Ontario-based Charger Logistics to deploy its second-generation driverless truck. The two companies plan to use the Aurora Driver to move freight more efficiently, bolstering their operations in the Southwest. In addition to Dallas-Laredo, Value Truck will also use the technology between Fort Worth and Phoenix.
Aurora says Laredo is the busiest land port in the Western Hemisphere, handling roughly 40% of all freight moving between the U.S. and Mexico. Nearshoring efforts across supply chains are driving volume even higher.
“Freight volume on routes like Dallas-Laredo is growing faster than available capacity, and that gap is exactly what the Aurora Driver is built to close,” said Zac Andreoni, vice president of business development at Aurora, in a statement.
North Texas becomes a hub for driverless trucks
Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation launched its commercial driverless trucking service in 2025. [Photo: Aurora Innovation]
Aurora officially launched its first commercial-ready terminal for autonomous trucks in Palmer in April 2023. At the time, its trucking service pulled freight between Dallas and Houston for pilot customers including FedEx, Schneider and Uber Freight.
The company started its first driverless Class 8 commercial trucking delivery between Dallas and Houston in April 2025. CEO Chris Urmson sat in the back of the driverless cab for the first trip. (At present, all of its trucks have a human in the backseat of the cab, but the company is working toward trucks that operate without any human presence.) Aurora says it is on track to end the year with 200 driverless trucks in operation.
Aurora added nighttime runs between the two cities in July 2025 and has continued to grow its regional operations. Its second route, between Fort Worth and El Paso, opened in October 2025. It has since added routes between El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Dallas and Laredo.
The two new deals
Driverless trucks can cut transit times significantly compared to operations that depend on human drivers with mandatory rest breaks.
Charger Logistics said in a statement that it plans to use Aurora’s technology to improve service and add capacity for customers moving temperature-controlled, pharmaceutical and other “mission-critical” freight, along one of its busiest U.S. freight corridors.
“Autonomous trucking represents a transformational opportunity for the freight industry,” Charger Logistics President Andy Khera said.
Value Truck CEO Joe Skoog described its Phoenix to Fort Worth and Laredo to Dallas routes as “the starting point, not the finish line. Together, we intend to build one of the most advanced transportation networks across North America.”
Aurora’s growth
Earlier this month, Aurora launched its second-generation Aurora Driver, which combines its software with a new truck platform. During its second-quarter earnings call July 29, Urmson said the new technology is a big step forward.
“This milestone officially moves Aurora into the start of our commercial scaling phase,” he said. The Aurora Driver has a solid safety record, he added, and the new hardware should improve driver reaction time and reduce costs.
Scaling is still expensive. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $2 million and a net loss of $270 million. It used roughly $225 million in operating cash during the quarter. It ended June with nearly $1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments.
In its earnings release, the company reaffirmed its full-year revenue outlook of $14 million to $16 million. CFO David Maday said the company expects to use $190 million to $220 million in cash per quarter through 2026.
Urmson said Aurora’s work with San Antonio-based Detmar Logistics shows the versatility of its technology, as it deployed driverless operations without a person behind the wheel between Detmar’s facility in Midland and Capital Sand mining in Monahans along Interstate 20.
“We expect to be expanding into the Sun Belt through the year-end,” Urmson said, adding that the company hasn’t been specific about the number of routes.
He said the company has started supervised testing of way station navigation and on-route fueling, two of the steps that will eventually enable “seamless” nationwide driverless trucking. It’s also piloting third-party fueling at truck stops, where truck stop staff fuel a truck as the Aurora Driver navigates in and out of the fuel area.
Aurora says Volvo plans to begin driverless operations on its autonomous trucks in the first quarter of 2027. In addition to a memorandum of understanding from Iowa-based Hirschbach for 500 trucks, Aurora is in discussions with other customers for its “driver as a service” model for 2027 and beyond.
Urmson declined to name the new prospective customers, but said Aurora is confident that as its technology becomes more widely used and recognized, it will continue to add new customers.
“This technology is so impactful, transformational, improving safety, improving fuel economy, improving utilization, for customers, that if you’re not using our stuff in the next five years, you just won’t be competitive in long-haul [trucking],” he said. “We’re excited for that.”
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