Aurora’s autonomous trucks are now driving at night. Its next big challenge is rain.

Over the next year, Chris Urmson, Director General of Aurora Innovation, wants to “unlock” the United States Sun, South Route, where its self-driving trucks will carry goods for companies like Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines.

Aurora that launched its Without a driver’s business self-driving truck service This time has already progressed to that goal. The company reported Wednesday in its second-quarter letter to shareholders, that it now has three self-driving trucks running commercially between Dallas and Houston and registered more than 20,000 driver miles at the end of June. Its business self-driving trucks have a human “observer” in the cab, people who are not there to work or intervene, according to the company.

Aurora also opened a terminal in Phoenix, another physical sign of its mission of Sunbelt Trucking Itiner. Aurora is piloting an autonomous truck on a 15-hour route from its terminal in Fort Worth, Texas to Phoenix for customers, Hirschbach and Werner. The company’s terminals, located within one to five miles from the highway, require the driver’s trucks to handle outings and surface streets.

But it is the company’s ability to work at night, which helps it push into new territory. Aurora said that Wednesday has validated the ability for its driverless trucks to navigate roads and roads at night. This allows the trucks to travel longer distances – and seriously beyond the federally ordered service – limitation for traditional human drivers. Truckers are allowed to travel up to 11 hours over a 14-hour period; And they can’t do that day by day. Truckers are also required to make 10-hour breaks after completing a long-term route.

“The value is really longer – so 600 miles is definitely a good range where this is on the limit of what is possible for people,” Urmsson told Techcrunch in a recent interview, adding that he ultimately hopes that Aurora Trucks carries a freight from Miami to California.

Urmsson partly credits the proprietary, long -distance Lidar of Aurora, which can detect objects in the dark more than 450 meters away, due to its ability to work at night. The Lidar can identify pedestrians, vehicles and waste up to 11 seconds earlier than a traditional driver, according to the company. Aurora acquired two Lidar companies since it was founded in 2017. The company purchased BlackMoreMontana-based LIDAR startup, in May 2019 and our technology in 2021.

Now, Urmsson and the rest of Aurora’s engineers work to validate the ability of the driver’s trucks to work in rain.

“By the end of the year, we expect to operate a day, night and rain – if you can’t drive through the rain, it’s ultimately difficult to support these long operations because it is raining somewhere,” he said.

Today, Aurora’s development fleet works in the rain and well enough that Urmsson realized that most wonder why the company does not allow its business trucks to do the same. Aurora did not complete the validity for this today, and “so we are not ready to put that mark next to it and let it go there,” he noticed.

Today the company monitors weather on its one trading route between Dallas and Houston. If unfavorable weather conditions like rain suddenly arise, those trucks are able to detect this and pull from the road on their own, where they will wait to be saved, Urmsson said.

“This year it’s really about building the capable tool for the vehicles to drive where they have to,” he said in a nod to the company’s focus on validating driving at night and in the rain.

Next year Aurora will focus on climbing its way, about distances and its fleet. Aurora plans to have “dozens of driver trucks” operating on public roads by the end of the year and “hundreds” by the end of 2026.

All this, from the ability of the driver’s trucks to operate at night and rain until opening more routes and with a larger fleet, will be critical if Aurora ever hopes to achieve profit.

The income-to-net income gap today is great. Aurora reported revenue of $ 1 million in the second quarter and net income loss of $ 201 million, According to its regulatory archiving.