Feb 14 (Reuters) - Aurora Innovation Inc, a developer of automated driving systems for heavy trucks, will partner with US Xpress Enterprises Inc, one of the country’s largest trucking companies, to build a premium service for freight carriers, the companies said on Monday.
The collaboration is the latest in a string of tie-ups forged by six-year-old Aurora, including partnerships with truck manufacturers PACCAR Inc and Volvo Truck and carriers FedEx Corp and Uber Technologies Inc's Uber Freight.
Aurora, which is based in Mountain View, California, and went public in November, joins a growing list of companies aiming to automate heavy trucks, including Alphabet Inc's Waymo and startups TuSimple Holdings Inc, Embark Technology Inc, Plus and Kodiak.
Aurora and U.S. Xpress said they envision “a future where goods are transported by both human drivers and autonomous trucks.”
Aurora is building a service that includes a fully automated driving system, as well as a suite of fleet management tools and services, branded as Aurora Horizon.
Founded in 2016 by Silicon Valley veterans Chris Urmson, Sterling Anderson and Drew Bagnell, Aurora has said it plans to launch fully driverless trucks by late 2023, with robotaxis to follow a year later.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit Editing by Matthew Lewis)
