Experience Aurora Illuminated

Illuminating the technology behind the Aurora Driver

For two weeks, we transformed our South Dallas Terminal location in Palmer, Texas into an immersive experience for investors, analysts, media, partners, and customers. We invited guests to dive deep into our technical expertise and progress, learn more about our product development and path to commercialization, and experience the Aurora Driver out in the real world with autonomous rides in our trucks.

Couldn’t make it to Texas? We welcome you to take the Aurora Illuminated digital tour and explore the stories, content, and videos from the event.

From an autonomous ride in a Peterbilt 579, to a demo of how our FirstLight Lidar sees the world, to tech talks hosted by our engineers at an interactive Innovation Fair, we showed Aurora Illuminated guests that a new way to drive is on the horizon.

Aurora Illuminated digital tour

Experience a visit to Aurora Illuminated from start to finish and watch all of the content from the event, including presentations on our approach to safety, partnerships and go-to-market strategy.

Aurora's approach to innovation

Co-founder and Chief Scientist Drew Bagnell explains the secret to developing a self-driving product that’s both safe and scalable—an approach that’s driven by data, harnesses the power of Machine Learning and AI, and leverages the strengths of a strong and diverse team of engineers.

Aurora’s industry-leading approach to hardware development

We design purpose-built hardware for performance, reliability, and scale. The needs of our high-precision self-driving software can’t be met with only a collection of off-the-shelf parts. Whether it’s our powerful computer or advanced FirstLight lidar sensors, our tightly integrated hardware and software teams jointly design high-performance, custom-built hardware that meet the specific needs of the Aurora Driver.

The power of Aurora’s perception system

Our state-of-the art perception system leverages deep learning and early sensor fusion to see the world in full 3D and at long ranges. Our system provides the Aurora Driver with unparalleled situational awareness, made possible through our innovative approach to the integration of advanced deep learning and probabilistic state estimation.

Aurora Atlas: HD mapping for scale

We build lightweight, scalable, high-definition maps for safe autonomous driving, and we’re approaching HD mapping in a unique, innovative way that is built for rapid expansion through custom-built machine learning tools and automation.

Aurora’s simulation engine

Simulation testing drives the development of the Aurora Driver. We accelerate development and validation through scalable simulation in virtual worlds. It is the quickest and safest way to train and test our self-driving technology—equivalent to more than 50,000 trucks driving continuously.

Interactive forecasting and learned decision making

We use machine learning to make better driving decisions. Our learned, interleaved approach to forecasting and planning allows the Aurora Driver to reason about how other vehicles behave and make safe, predictable decisions on the road.

The Aurora data engine

We advance the Aurora Driver through valuable data that drives Machine Learning and AI. We've built important key foundational tools that enable fast interactions and rapid innovation and advancement, enabling us to power the Aurora "Data Engine" as we collect, mine, label, and feed into models training on-road data. This fast iteration cycle provides our teams with the information they need to rapidly advance the capabilities of the Aurora Driver.

Aurora Driver—Common Core

The Aurora Driver utilizes a common hardware and software core for both trucking and ride-hailing, allowing it to benefit from the collective experience and scale of the combined fleet. See how our powerful, multi-modal “Fusion” sensor kit comes to life and interfaces with the software of the Aurora Driver to drive any vehicle.

The span of the Aurora Driver logistics network

See how the road network driveable by Aurora-powered trucks will start in Texas, then rapidly expand throughout the sunbelt, North America, and beyond.

How Aurora’s partnership ecosystem will accelerate the commercialization of the Aurora Driver

Learn how we’ve forged strategic partnerships with some of the world’s leading transportation companies— including ride-hailing network Uber, truck manufacturers PACCAR and Volvo Trucks,  and the world’s largest automaker Toyota—setting us up to deliver the Aurora Driver in both trucks and passenger vehicles, and how we are establishing logistics partners, like FedEx, to help define and refine our product solution and deploy commercially.

Aurora Horizon and Aurora Connect—How the Aurora Driver will go-to-market and transform the logistics and ride-hailing industries

 Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson breaks down how we’ll leverage the common core of the Aurora Driver to expand driving capabilities and launch autonomous Driver-as-a-Service offerings across both trucking and ride-hailing. Learn more about the market context, value proposition, rollout strategy, and core elements of our subscription services—Aurora Horizon, designed to move goods for carriers and fleets, and Aurora Connect, designed to move people for ride-hailing networks. 

Follow our journey

Check out our Aurora Autonomy blog for the latest news on our team, our technology, and our progress as we chart the course that will deliver self-driving technology to the world.