Aurora: Self-Driving Solution

Development of Autonomous Driving Solution – Attracted $400 Million Investment

Development of Aurora Driver, an autonomous driving system equipped with LiDAR, radar, and camera that recognizes the surroundings of the vehicle, and S/W module for deriving an optimal safe driving route.

Uber sells Advanced Technologies Group, an autonomous vehicle business, to Aurora, invests $400 million and acquires a 26% stake in Aurora.

Aurora

Aurora is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. In 2017, leading autonomy experts, Chris Urmson, Drew Bagnell, and Sterling Anderson came together to accelerate the adoption of driverless vehicles by developing the Aurora Driver and a multifaceted network of manufacturing, mobility, logistics, and fleet management partners. Created from industry-leading hardware and software, the Aurora Driver is built to safely move goods and people. Aurora is backed by Amazon and Sequoia, among others, and has partnerships with leading transportation companies including PACCAR, Uber, FCA, and Hyundai Group. It tests its vehicles in the Bay Area, Pittsburgh, and Dallas and has offices in those cities as well as in Bozeman, Seattle, Denver, and Detroit.

General Information

Headquarters : Palo Alto, CA
Founders : Chris Urmson, J. Andrew Bagnell, Sterling Anderson
Categories : Automotive, Autonomous Vehicles, Machine Learning, Transportation
Founded : 2017
Contact : press@aurora.tech

Funding

Investor: Uber
Funding Rounds (3) - $1.1B
Dec 7, 2020 Corporate Round / $400M
Jun 12, 2019 Series B / $600M
Feb 28, 2018 Series A / $90M

1. Reason for attention

Aurora, which develops autonomous driving solutions, acquired the Advanced Technologies Group, a subsidiary of Uber's autonomous driving business, in December 2020, drawing attention from the market.

The sale price is said to be around $4 billion, with Uber investing an additional $400 million in Aurora to acquire a 26% stake, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joining Aurora's board of directors.

Aurora, star engineer Chris Urmson, who led Google's autonomous driving division, led MIT's intelligent driving assistance project, and Tesla's ModelX and Autopa

Sterling Anderson, who developed Illot, and Andrew Bagnell, who studied machine learning and robotics for 20 years at Carnegie Mellon University, founded in 2017 and is considered a leader in the autonomous driving industry.

After the acquisition of ATG, Aurora's enterprise value is estimated at $10 billion.

2. Current service status

Aurora is currently developing an autonomous driving platform for Level 4 and Level 5 where vehicles can autonomously drive in almost any situation.

Aurora will provide automakers with an autonomous driving platform so that automakers can build autonomous vehicles without developing their own technology.

In February 2020, Aurora will partner with Toyota and Denso to create self-driving vehicles, which will be applied to the minivan Sienna.

Aurora has been collaborating since 2018 and is collaborating with a number of companies unlike other companies, such as Hyundai and Kia, which invested $600 million in 2019, and Volkswagen and Paccar, a heavy truck manufacturer

3. Competition

Pony.ai

As a China-based autonomous driving solution developer, robotaxi pilots are in progress in China and the United States

In February 2020, Toyota received an investment of $462 billion, and in February 2021, an investment of $100 million was received with an enterprise value of $5.3 billion, attracting a total of $1.1 billion in investment.

4. Future Prospects

There is a shortage of truck drivers in the United States of about 60,000 as of 2019 and this number is expected to increase to 160,000 in 2028. The shortage of truck drivers in the United States is serious. is also increasing

Aurora plans to focus on the development of autonomous driving technology for trucks that can reduce accidents caused by truck drivers in the short term and, in the long term, focus on autonomous taxis, etc.