Volvo developing self-driving trucks with startup Aurora

SAN FRANCISCO: Robotruck developer Aurora has secured another big-name partner from the automotive industry: Volvo plans to rely on self-driving technology from the Silicon Valley startup, the companies announced on Tuesday.

The news will potentially be good for cyclists, many of whom have lost their lives under a turning juggernaut, and Aurora says future Volvo trucks will have the ability to detect and track objects beyond 300 metres.

Aurora was founded by an industry dream team of sorts: Chris Urmson was chief developer on Google's robot car project, and Sterling Anderson was once in charge of Tesla's "Autopilot" driving assistance system. Amazon, among others, invested in the start-up.

Part of Urmson and Anderson's concept was to develop the company with relatively few test vehicles.

After Aurora failed to win Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler as partners, the company temporarily focused more on technology for self-driving trucks.

Since then, Aurora has returned to developing an autonomous car. In December, Aurora took over robotic car development from Uber after the ride-hailing company dropped this expensive operations during the pandemic. In February, it announced joint development of robotaxis with Toyota.