Toyota, Aurora Test-Drive Self-Driving Ride-Hailing Fleet in Texas

Autonomous vehicle startups are under pressure to generate meaningful revenue from billions of dollars of engineering investment.

Toyota, Aurora Test-Drive Self-Driving Ride-Hailing Fleet in Texas

Toyota and Aurora start testing an autonomous ride-hailing fleet using Sienna minivans

Highlights
  • Autonomous vehicle startups are under pressure
  • Aurora's rival Waymo charges passengers
  • Waymo said on Monday it is ready to deploy driverless vehicles
Advertisement

Japan's Toyota Motor and Aurora, a US developer of automated driving systems, have started testing autonomous ride-hailing fleet in Texas, with two safety operators and no passenger on board, Aurora said on Tuesday.

Toyota's Sienna minivans, retrofitted with Aurora's self-driving system, will be tested on highways and suburban streets in the Dallas-Fort-Worth area, with the operation including trips en-route to an airport.

Autonomous vehicle startups are under pressure to generate meaningful revenue from billions of dollars of engineering investment, but scaling up the fleet is a challenge as technological hurdles remain.

"The route showcases Aurora's ability to safely operate at highway speeds, a key technical differentiator that allows it to prioritise popular and lucrative rides," the US company said in a statement.

Aurora's rival Waymo charges passengers of its driverless minivans for rides in limited suburban areas in Phoenix, and airport pickups are not available.

Waymo said on Monday it is ready to deploy driverless vehicles in the densely populated San Francisco city, without giving a timeframe for the launch.

Aurora, led by Chris Urmson, a former head of Google's self-driving car project that has since become Waymo, said it plans to continue adding vehicles to the fleet in preparation for commercial launch on ride-hailing networks such as Uber.

Aurora bought Uber's autonomous vehicle unit ATG 2020 while the ride-hailing giant had acquired a 26 percent ownership interest in Aurora.

© Thomson Reuters 2022


What's most interesting about Apple's new MacBook Pros, M1 Pro and M1 Max silicon, AirPods (3rd Generation), and Apple Music Voice plan? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Toyota, Aurora
WhatsApp for Android Brings Back Resumable Voice Recordings to Beta Testers; Testing Stickers Tab on UWP App
Apple Planning to Unveil 15-Inch MacBook Air, New iPad, More Offerings in 2023: Report
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »