It takes Aurora about 15 hours to carry freight in its driverless trucks on the 1,000-mile journey, according to the company. Human truck drivers take much longer to complete the same distance due to federal regulations that limit how long they can be behind the wheel. For instance, truck drivers must stop for a 30-minute break after eight hours and can operate a semi truck for a maximum of 11 hours at a time, according to federal regulations.
The company said the latest software update to its driverless hardware suite will enable its trucks to drive nonstop from Phoenix to Fort Worth. That trip is roughly 1,000 miles long and takes 15 hours to complete, but here's where trucks without drivers behind the steering wheel have the upper hand, because they're not subject to the same mandatory rest breaks as human drivers.
To that end, Kodiak has developed the Kodiak Driver, a virtual driver that combines advanced AI-powered software with modular and vehicle-agnostic hardware to further address customers' needs. Kodiak Driver incorporates technology that allows a human to provide remote assistance to a vehicle in certain low-speed and clearly defined scenarios that benefit from human involvement. Verizon connectivity allows Kodiak's driverless vehicles to communicate with Assisted Autonomy drivers and send mission-critical communication between vehicles and command centres, with low latency over long distances in remote environments.
Aurora also shared details on next-generation hardware, which is made by Fabrinet and is being integrated with the Volvo VNL Autonomous trucks. Aurora plans to build 100s of trucks with its next-gen hardware in 2026. It says the hardware is more durable and has better performance, yet it is half the overall cost. The company's new generation of lidar detects objects 1,000 meters away, which is twice the distance of its current generation.
