(Bloomberg) – Driverless Car developer Aurora Innovation Inc. puts humans back in front of large rigs operated in Texas, reversing the course less than three weeks after the company began commercial autonomous service.
Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said in a post on the company’s website Friday that the decision to move the “observer” from the rear of the cabin to the driver’s seat at the request of PACCAR Inc. was made in a requirement to build the truck. The truck will still be operated by the Aurora driver autonomous driving system, but the person will be able to intervene if needed.
“We are confident that we operate the truck safely based on detailed tests (covering nearly 10,000 requirements and 2.7 million tests) and analyzed our safety case,” Ulmsen wrote. “PACCAR is a long-term partner and after a lot of consideration, we respect their requirements.”
Aurora said on May 1 that it started commercial trucking services in Texas, two of which were completely autonomous vehicles built by PACCAR. This is Aurora’s first commercial autonomous driving service on public roads. The company plans to expand to El Paso, Texas and Phoenix by the end of the year.
Friday’s posts suggest that the companies disagree with people’s needs to protect problems that may arise in the early stages of commercial driverless services. Ulmson said PACCAR requires changes because of some prototype parts on the truck.
A PACCAR spokesperson did not return requests for comment.
A brief seller report published by Bleecker Street Research on May 14 said Aurora has not yet obtained a license to PACCAR to commercialize its trucks through autonomous driving, and heavy truck manufacturers believe the technology will take longer.
An Aurora spokesman declined to comment on the report.
Aurora has lost key executives over the past year. General Motors Co. said this week that Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson won the same title among automakers. General Counsel Nolan Shenai left around the beginning of the year, and Senior Vice President of Engineering Yanbing Li left Aurora to join Datadog Inc. in August.
– Assistance with Ed Ludlow.
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