Auto parts supplier Continental is helping autonomous trucking company Aurora create an updated, secondary safety system and preparing to scale production of sensors and computers to advance the technology.
The companies have partnered to develop and deliver the autonomous system, and Continental is slated to build and test hardware across this year and next at its new facility in New Braunfels, Texas, according to a Friday news release.
“Continental will cover the production in its worldwide network of production plants,” Jeremy McClain, Continental Head of System & Software, Autonomous Mobility Business Area, said in a statement to Trucking Dive.
That comes after the companies “finalized the architecture, specs, and requirements of the Aurora Driver hardware that Continental will develop and manufacture in the thousands in 2027,” an Aurora spokesperson said in an email.
The partnership aims to lower costs for trucking firms through mass production, and according to Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO of Aurora, the recent advancement marks a meaningful step toward scaling the technology.
Additionally, Aurora is assisting Continental’s engineering team with the development of a fallback system, “a specialized secondary computer that can take over operation if a failure occurs in the primary system,” the companies said.
The updated fallback system will replace a current one that Aurora developed, the company spokesperson said, adding that Continental’s input involves developing software.
“The partnership gives Aurora a path to deploy autonomous trucks at scale after its initial driverless launch, planned at the end of 2024,” a news release said. The commercial launch is slated to take place in Texas.
