Aurora Freight
First self-driving trucks commercially delivering goods on America's roads.
Trucking is a $700B industry in the U.S.—nearly everything we own has traveled on the back of a truck. Aurora is on a mission to build the safest driver of the future by automating middle-mile delivery. In partnership with Peterbilt, Kenworth, Volvo, and Continental, we’re developing the world’s first scalable autonomous trucking platform.
How might we design autonomous vehicle hardware that is safe for public roads, adaptable across platforms and fleets, efficient and cost-effective to operate, and desirable and approachable to the public?
Hardware and physical touchpoints required to commercially deliver autonomous trucking solutions to businesses and partners.
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Commercially launched a fleet of self-driving trucks delivering customer goods in Texas.
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Established Autonomy Enabled Trucks with OEMs and Tier 1 manufacturer to industrialize the Aurora Driver.
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30% improvement in aerodynamic efficiency on the Aurora Driver Kit compared to its predecessor—contributing to $1M reduction in fuel costs annually in a 1,000 truck fleet.
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John Paxton, Albert Shane, Wayne Jackson and many many more.
Crawl, walk, run.
In 2022, we designed and built two concept trucks to communicate our vision across teams, partners, and the broader industry. Debuted at the American Trucking Association Convention, they demonstrated a scalable, cross-platform design strategy and helped secure our partnership with PACCAR, which holds 30% of the U.S. trucking market.
In 2025, Aurora launched commercial operations with Uber Freight on the busy Dallas–Houston corridor, proving the product in real-world service. We designed and delivered a low-volume fleet of roadworthy self-driving trucks, along with the terminals and physical touchpoints needed to support a fully operational middle-mile network.
To validate scalability and business viability, we partnered with OEMs to standardize Autonomy Enabled Trucks, enabling safe, plug-and-play hardware integration. We also drove major hardware optimizations, including a 30% aerodynamic efficiency improvement on the Aurora Driver Kit, delivering meaningful reductions in operating costs.
Industrialize the Aurora Driver—In partnership with Continental and our OEMs, we’re developing the Aurora Driver as a scalable, automotive-grade product ready for commercial deployment, supporting Aurora’s long-term goal of nationwide autonomous trucking. This work is actively underway with our partners.
Allowing the autonomous driver to clearly see the world.
Clear visibility first step to road safety—sensors are the eyes and ears to autonomous vehicles. Sensor pods composed of various LiDARs, radars, cameras and microphones are strategically placed on the truck and packaged to ensure visibility of it's surrounding.
Key learnings that helped us navigate the complex landscape.
Developing a unified design was challenging—OEMs protect their brand identity, while Aurora needed a distinct, recognizable look. Balancing multiple OEM design languages with our own visual identity required careful coordination across partners and platforms.
Deep platform integration builds public confidence. We took a deliberate approach to structurally integrate to Aurora hardware kit to the platform. This carved a path towards designing and defining Autonomy Enabled Trucks.
Platform agnostic design lowers barrier for new partnerships. The common design strategy allowed Aurora Driver to be integrated to multiple platforms without skewing to strongly to one OEM or the other.
Great aerodynamics unlock customer buy-in from the get-go. Efficient aerodynamics is an important feature for OEMs. Fuel efficiency is a key performance metric and selling point for customers and OEM partners.
Build in hardware and design provisions for volatility. Self driving is an advanced technology industry that is quickly growing and interdependent on various partners, industries and adjacent technologies.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Rapidly prototyping to build clarity and momentum.
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WEAVING TOUCHPOINTS
Exterior HMI
The exterior light bar is a safety-critical feature of the Aurora Driver, designed to communicate the vehicle’s state and intent to the world around it. It signals whether the vehicle is in autonomous mode, indicates when it’s safe to approach, and acts as a modern emergency triangle when stopped on public roads.
Contributions :
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Defining key functionalities of the light bar based on real-world safety needs.
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Identifying optimal placement for clear visibility and quick recognition.
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Developing a visual language of light behaviors to communicate effectively with terminal operators and nearby pedestrians.
Interior HMI & Vehicle Bring up
Interface is key to adoption of autonomous vehicles. Interior HMI is a touchpoint and work stream needed to bring up the Aurora Driver for a mission. The input and feedback loop needed to be clear and in sync with the platform information. Consistent across generations.
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Interactions and feedback for safe and intuitive engagement during the bring up process.
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Building consistency across NVO and VO autonomy engagement procedure to lower learning curve.
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Aligning OEMs on implementation of Aurora interface to build interaction consistency in a multi-platform fleet.
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Provisioning for future features on next generation Autonomy Enabled Truck platforms.
External Actor Vehicle UX
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Vehicle Security and Road Compliance
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Vehicle Service and Maintenance Optimization
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Rapidly prototyping to build momentum and clarity.
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From Gen1 to Gen2, we achieved a 30% reduction in aerodynamic drag, translating to over $1M in annual fuel savings for a fleet of 1,000 trucks. Continued refinements in later generations delivered even greater aerodynamic efficiency, further reducing drag and operational costs. These measurable gains strengthened OEM partner commitments, validating our design approach and reinforcing the value of aerodynamic innovation in long-haul freight operations.
Guiding Aurora’s partners in the development of autonomous hardware was critical to industrializing and commercializing efforts.
We drove horizontal alignment with partners such as Volvo, Peterbilt, Kenworth, and Continental by establishing design envelopes, keep-out zones, and hardware requirements. This collaborative framework ensured that Aurora’s autonomous systems could be seamlessly integrated into multiple OEM platforms, enabling both Aurora and its partners to accelerate development, reduce integration risks, and bring compatible, production-ready self-driving trucks to market.Text
Key activities to support hardware development of Aurora's first customer-facing vehicle.
Roadworthy low volume production methods present unique opportunities and constraints.
Designing for low-volume production required balancing economy of scale with quality of outcome. We selected manufacturing methods based on part size and production quantity, leveraging a combination of thermoforming and casting for the sensor pod covers.
For larger parts in lower quantities, thermoforming provided an efficient, cost-effective solution without compromising quality. For smaller parts in higher quantities, casting delivered consistency, precision, and scalability. This approach allowed us to optimize cost, lead time, and durability while maintaining a high standard of fit and finish.
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From Gen1 to Gen2, we achieved a 30% reduction in aerodynamic drag, translating to over $1M in annual fuel savings for a fleet of 1,000 trucks. Continued refinements in later generations delivered even greater aerodynamic efficiency, further reducing drag and operational costs. These measurable gains strengthened OEM partner commitments, validating our design approach and reinforcing the value of aerodynamic innovation in long-haul freight operations.
Guiding Aurora’s partners in the development of autonomous hardware was critical to industrializing and commercializing efforts.
We drove horizontal alignment with partners such as Volvo, Peterbilt, Kenworth, and Continental by establishing design envelopes, keep-out zones, and hardware requirements. This collaborative framework ensured that Aurora’s autonomous systems could be seamlessly integrated into multiple OEM platforms, enabling both Aurora and its partners to accelerate development, reduce integration risks, and bring compatible, production-ready self-driving trucks to market.Text
Touchpoints that come together to enable the freight operation.
Exterior HMI
The exterior light bar is a safety-critical feature of the Aurora Driver, designed to communicate the vehicle’s state and intent to the world around it. It signals whether the vehicle is in autonomous mode, indicates when it’s safe to approach, and acts as a modern emergency triangle when stopped on public roads.
Contributions :
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Defining key functionalities of the light bar based on real-world safety needs.
-
Identifying optimal placement for clear visibility and quick recognition.
-
Developing a visual language of light behaviors to communicate effectively with terminal operators and nearby pedestrians.
Interior HMI
Interface is key to adoption of autonomous vehicles. Interior HMI is a touchpoint and work stream needed to bring up the Aurora Driver for a mission. The input and feedback loop needed to be clear and in sync with the platform information. Consistent across generations.
Contributions :
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Interactions and feedback for safe and intuitive engagement during the bring up process.
Vehicle Security & Compliance
Every freight transport trip requires documents regarding the trailer and tractor that needs to be presented to law enforcements if the truck gets pulled over. It is required to carry physical copies of the documents and allow the officer to inspect the cabin if needed.
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Physical User Experience of how external actors may engagement with autonomous trucks and the facilitation of enabling law-enforcements to conduct their needs.
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Defining the placement of document and key lockbox for external actor engagements.
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Sourcing off-the-shelve security mechanisms to store and protect documents and key to the cabin.
Vehicle UX
The vehicle’s information architecture complies with the USDOT regulations and ensures external actors can quickly and safely engage with Aurora’s autonomous trucks.
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Understanding inspection workflow and structuring the information needed for externals during off-nominal cases.
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Sketching the Hotline function on how and what services would be provided.
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Executing and implementing the information on a fleet of trucks.
Vehicle Service and Maintenance Workflow
The work focused on learning from terminal operations to optimize the service and maintenance of Aurora hardware, embedding these insights into ongoing and future hardware development.
Contributions :
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Translating operational learnings into hardware features that improve serviceability and maintenance efficiency at scale.
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Proposing workflow improvements to streamline vehicle inspection and mission preparation.
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Refining A-surface geometries and integrating sensor-cleaning solutions informed by real-world service and environmental conditions.
Commercial launch—say hello to the first self driving freight system on American roads.
In April 2025, Aurora successfully and commercially launched the Aurora Driver, autonomously hauling customer freight between Dallas and Houston, Texas. Backed by carriers and customers like Uber Freight, Werner, FedEx and many more, this milestone marks the first commercial deployment of an autonomous 18-wheeler freight service in the United States.
