Aurora, Paccar agree to deal for driverless trucks

Aurora Innovation, a Silicon Valley-based autonomous-driving startup with a $10 billion valuation, has entered into a strategic partnership with Paccar, the maker of light, medium and heavy-duty trucks.

Aurora sees long-haul trucking, not passenger cars, as first to the market for self-driving vehicles. So the Palo Alto-based company designed its Aurora Driver technology for initial use in trucking applications, then last-mile goods delivery and finally passenger-mobility networks. Paccar is aiming to stay competitive with rivals such as Daimler and Volvo which also are developing self-driving technology for their freight haulers.

“Aurora and Paccar have a detailed plan for bringing this to market, and we’re pushing it with significant urgency,” Sterling Anderson, Aurora’s chief product officer and a co-founder said in an interview.

Bellevue, Washingtonbased Paccar expects to use Aurora Driver “in the next several years” on its Kenworth T680 and Peterbilt model 579 trucks in North America, it said in a press release.