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Aurora Innovation, Inc. (AUR) Discusses AI Advancements, Commoditization Concerns, and Defensibility in Autonomous Trucking August 20, 2026 12:00 PM EDT

Company Participants

Stacy Feit - Vice President of Investor Relations
Christopher Urmson - Co-Founder, CEO & Non-Independent Executive Chairman
David Maday - Chief Financial Officer

Presentation

Stacy Feit
Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Before we begin the Q&A portion of today's town hall, I want to quickly note that as you just saw at the end of the video, we will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions and beliefs as of today's date and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to the risk factors and other disclosures in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC.

Now on to Q&A.

Question-and-Answer Session

Stacy Feit
Vice President of Investor Relations

First, thank you to everyone who submitted and upvoted questions. We had a tremendous turnout. We're going to extend our time together today to cover as much ground as possible.

A quick note on how the segment will work. We'll be addressing the top of voted questions submitted by our retail investor community, all of which have been anonymized. Please keep in mind, we aren't in a position to provide investment advice, and we won't be discussing our financial outlook beyond the 2026 guidance we've already provided.

With that, let's dive in. Chris, Dave, the most upvoted question we received is, there has been a lot of speculation about AI leading to commoditization of autonomous drivers. How would you respond to this speculation? Do you believe Aurora has a defensible moat? Is the industry nearing an inflection point where it's nearly impossible for new competitors to enter the market?

Top 5 AI & Autonomy Stocks Trading Under $15 With Big PotentialAurora Innovation NASDAQ: AUR said its second-quarter business review marked the beginning of its commercial scaling phase for driverless trucking, citing new customer agreements, the launch of its second-generation Aurora Driver platform and plans to operate 200 driverless trucks by year-end.

Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Chris Urmson said Aurora has launched a new fleet of driverless trucks based on the International LT Series and introduced Aurora Driver 2, which combines new software, second-generation commercial hardware and the truck platform. The company said it is fully allocated to exit 2026 with 200 driverless trucks in operation and is negotiating with prospective Driver-as-a-Service customers for 2027 and beyond.

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Customer Agreements and Network Expansion 3 High-Risk, High-Reward Stocks With Explosive UpsideAurora said it recently executed Transportation-as-a-Service agreements with Charger Logistics and Value Truck. Charger Logistics plans to use Aurora Driver-powered trucks to add capacity and improve utilization on the Dallas-to-Laredo route. Value Truck initially plans to use the technology on Dallas-to-Laredo and Fort Worth-to-Phoenix corridors.

The company also expanded operations with Volvo Autonomous Solutions, which launched commercial freight service using the Aurora Driver for DSV and AVI-SPL. Urmson said each new customer can act as a “pipeline multiplier” as logistics providers gain confidence in autonomous trucking.

NVIDIA Deal Ignites Aurora Stock’s Explosive PotentialSince launching driverless operations, Aurora said its trucks completed nearly 440,000 driverless miles through the end of June, with 100% on-time performance and no Aurora Driver-attributed collisions. The company expects driverless mileage to accelerate as additional trucks enter service.

Aurora also began driverless operations for Detmar Logistics between a Midland, Texas, facility and a Capital Sand mining site in Monahans, Texas. The deployment involved validating a frac sand trailer with what the company described as minimal integration work.

To support longer operations, Aurora has begun supervised testing of way-station navigation and on-route fueling. In current truck-stop pilots, personnel fuel trucks while the Aurora Driver navigates into and out of fuel islands. The company said it expects truck-stop staff eventually to use automated arrival notifications to secure, fuel and release autonomous trucks.

Hardware Scale-Up and OEM Partnerships Urmson said Aurora Driver 2’s second-generation hardware kit is engineered for 1 million miles of operation and is intended to improve uptime and reliability. The company expects the system to reduce Aurora Driver hardware costs by more than 50%, supporting its gross-margin objectives.

The hardware includes a more efficient computer and an extended 1-kilometer range for Aurora’s FirstLight frequency-modulated continuous-wave lidar. Aurora said the range provides more than 34 seconds of reaction time at highway speeds.

Aurora expects to have 20 to 25 driverless International trucks in operation by the end of the third quarter. Its upfitting partner, Roush, has begun manufacturing at a dedicated Aurora facility, with Aurora expecting Roush to reach an annual production run rate of 1,000 trucks in October.

By year-end, Aurora expects its operating fleet to consist of International and Volvo trucks, while it phases out Peterbilt trucks that had been used with first-generation hardware. Aurora expects to reintroduce Peterbilt vehicles with its third-generation hardware in the future.

Volvo Autonomous Solutions plans to begin driverless operations of Volvo VNL Autonomous trucks powered by the Aurora Driver in the first quarter of 2027, Aurora said. Volvo has said it expects to exit 2027 with more than 300 driverless trucks and projects $3 billion in autonomous revenue within five years, according to Urmson.

Aurora is also working with AUMOVIO on third-generation hardware intended to support tens of thousands of trucks, with planned production beginning in the second half of 2027. Separately, PACCAR and Aurora are defining a path to integrate the third-generation kit into PACCAR’s future autonomy-enabled truck platform.

Regulatory and Safety Developments Urmson said California has joined other states in permitting deployment of driverless trucks, and Aurora has submitted an application to begin required driver testing in the state. At the federal level, he highlighted the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s 62-to-2 approval in May of the BUILD America 250 Act, which includes a framework for nationwide autonomous-truck deployment.

The CEO also described a recent development-mission collision in Fort Worth involving an Aurora truck operating in manual mode. The truck was driven by a vehicle operator and the Aurora Driver system was not engaged, he said. Another vehicle entered an intersection against a red light and collided with the truck. No serious injuries were reported, though both vehicles sustained significant damage.

Aurora said its subsequent log review and simulation found that the Aurora Driver detected the red-light-running vehicle nearly six seconds before the collision and would have slowed to avoid the incident despite having the right of way.

Second-Quarter Results and Outlook Chief Financial Officer David Maday said second-quarter revenue totaled $2 million from driverless and vehicle-operator-supervised commercial loads. Aurora reported an operating loss of $266 million, including $60 million of stock-based compensation.

Research and development expense, excluding stock-based compensation: $164 million Selling, general and administrative expense, excluding stock-based compensation: $37 million Cost of revenue, excluding stock-based compensation: $7 million Operating cash use: approximately $225 million Capital expenditures: $31 million Aurora issued 30 million Class A shares through its at-the-market program during the quarter, generating $215 million in net proceeds. The company ended the period with nearly $1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments.

The company reaffirmed its expectation for 2026 revenue of $14 million to $16 million, with more than half of annual revenue expected in the fourth quarter as the new fleet scales. Aurora expects its year-end fleet of more than 200 driverless trucks to represent an approximately $80 million Transportation-as-a-Service revenue run rate.

Maday said Aurora expects average quarterly cash use of approximately $190 million to $220 million during 2026, including about $150 million of full-year capital expenditures, primarily related to its capacity plan. The company expects its Driver-as-a-Service model to begin in 2027, though it anticipates a customer-by-customer transition from Transportation-as-a-Service rather than an immediate change at the start of the year.

About Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR)Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.

The company's core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

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Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR), the leader in self-driving freight, today announced a new customer agreement to begin driverless hauls with the Aurora Driver. The deal coincides with the arrival of Aurora’s second-generation driverless trucks – a milestone that positions the company to meet the accelerating demand for the Aurora Driver. Value Truck plans to use the Aurora Driver to move freight more efficiently, especially in U.S. border cities like Laredo, Texas where nearshoring is driving unprecedented freight volume.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260727903588/en/

"Freight volume on routes like Dallas-Laredo is growing faster than available capacity, and that gap is exactly what the Aurora Driver is built to close," said Zac Andreoni, Vice President of Business Development at Aurora. "Value Truck is exactly the kind of customer we built our second-generation trucks for — a carrier that is growing and needs flexible, round-the-clock coverage on high-growth corridors."

Value Truck Signs On

Value Truck, a full-service and cross-border carrier, specializes in transporting heavy, oversized industrial equipment, retail goods, and perishables. The company will initially deploy the Aurora Driver on two routes: Dallas-Laredo and Fort Worth-Phoenix – freeing up its own drivers to focus on local freight while adding the potential for 24/7 capacity on key long-haul and high-volume routes.

"We’re proud to work alongside Aurora to move autonomous trucking from possibility to everyday freight operations,” said Joe Skoog, Chief Executive Officer of Value Truck. “The Aurora Driver will add flexible capacity on key long-haul corridors while allowing our drivers to focus where their experience matters most. Phoenix to Fort-Worth and Laredo to Dallas are the starting point, not the finish line. Together, we intend to build one of the most advanced transportation networks across North America.”

Autonomous Trucks to Ease Congestion at U.S. Border Hubs

Laredo, Texas, is the busiest land port in the Western Hemisphere and handles approximately 40% of all freight moving between the U.S. and Mexico. As manufacturing facilities move closer to the U.S., “nearshoring” is driving a surge in freight that travels through Laredo, leading to longer pick-up times for traditional drivers at congested U.S. border hubs. The Aurora Driver gives carriers a way to move that freight around the clock on American highways, without the hours-of-service limits that constrain traditional drivers.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, those statements regarding the prospects of the development, manufacturing, scaling (including, but not limited to, the route expansion strategy, the transition to our DaaS model, fleet size, fleet ownership, and our product’s availability and capabilities) and commercialization, and realization of the anticipated benefits of the Aurora Driver and Aurora’s autonomous driving technology (including expected improvements in efficiency, margins, capacity, and border freight operations), and Aurora’s relationships and anticipated benefits with customers, including risks that anticipated customer orders may not materialize, may be delayed, and/or customer contracts may be subject to cancellation, termination, or reduction in scope. These statements are based on management’s current assumptions and are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, please see the risks and uncertainties identified under the heading “Risk Factors” section of Aurora Innovation, Inc.’s (“Aurora”) Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 11, 2026, and other documents filed by Aurora from time to time with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in Aurora’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. All forward-looking statements reflect our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Aurora undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances, except as required by law.

About Aurora

Aurora (NASDAQ: AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly to make transportation safer, increasingly accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. The Aurora Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and underpins Aurora’s driver as a service product for trucking. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem, including AUMOVIO, FedEx, Hirschbach, McLane, NVIDIA, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner. To learn more, visit aurora.tech.

About Value Truck

Value Truck is a North American logistics platform giving enterprise shippers a single source of dynamic capacity, uniting a company-owned asset fleet and cross-border terminal network with a rapidly scaling asset-light operation. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, and operating terminals across the U.S. and Mexico, the company moves freight for shippers in manufacturing, building products, chemicals, and defense, and is partnering with Aurora to operate on the frontier of autonomous freight. Value Truck pairs its own proprietary AI and automation software with best-in-class technology to operate an integrated freight network engineered for what's next, delivering enterprise-grade reliability at scale. Value Truck isn't preparing for the autonomous era of freight; it's building it alongside the best partners in the world. To learn more, visit valuetruck.com.

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