Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 12

CONTENDERS
D
The
BY PETE BIGELOW
Aurora
momentum. Many
riverless operations. Deployment
plans. Funding infusions. As the
year nears a close, the self-driving
truck industry is gaining
companies notched
major technical and business-related milestones
in recent months.
Here's a look at what each company has
done in 2021, and where they stand heading
into next year.
AURORA
Few companies have been busier than
Aurora in 2021. At the outset, the company
began integrating nearly 1,000 employees
who came with Aurora's late-2020 acquisition
of Uber Advanced Technologies
Group. Most recently, Aurora completed
its reverse merger with special purpose
acquisition company, or SPAC, Reinvent
Technology Partners Y, a transaction that
netted the company $1.8 billion in cash
proceeds.
In February, it purchased OURS
Technology, a lidar company that can help
manufacture Aurora's FirstLight lidar at
scale.
Robotaxis remain on Aurora's road map,
but the company is first focusing its efforts
on self-driving trucks. Along those lines, it
partnered with FedEx in September and
will haul goods for the logistics giant in the
Dallas area. Further, Aurora unveiled the
fruits of a long-standing partnership with
Volvo Trucks, an autonomous truck platform
called VNL.
Beyond
those
partnerships,
Aurora
launched two with truck manufacturers
Paccar and Volvo. Working with them,
Aurora says, it plans to launch its commercial
trucking business, called Aurora
Horizon, in 2023.
12 shift * december 2021
Einride
EINRIDE
It's been nearly four years since Einride
brought its autonomous electric truck concept
to the North American International
Auto Show in January 2018. Now the
company is back in the U.S. in a big way.
Einride opened its U.S. headquarters in
New York in late October and has set up
regional operations in Austin, Texas, and
San Francisco. While it's been testing on
public roads in Europe since 2019, Einride
does not yet have a launch date for U.S.
testing or operations. Contracted customers
include GE Appliances, beverage provider
Oatly and Bridgestone, which shares
a technical partnership with Einride.
The distinctive trucks of the Swedish
company have no cab or human safety
driver.
But Einride has hired what it claims
Embark Trucks
Here's an overview of where several major
self-driving trucking companies stand
Shift Magazine - December 2021

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