Aurora aims for 30,000 driverless trucks by 2030 and shows its plan

Aurora aims for 30,000 driverless trucks by 2030 and shows its plan

23 September 2026: Aurora Innovation says it will have more than 30,000 driverless trucks in operation by 2030, earning what it calls a multi-billion-dollar revenue stream at software-like gross margins. The company set out the target at its 2026 Analyst and Investor Day in Dallas, after taking attendees on a ride with nobody behind the wheel.

Not yet independently verified. The Hirschbach agreement is a non-binding memorandum of understanding, as the release states. The 30,000-truck figure and the margin goal are company targets. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

A ride with no one at the wheel

Guests at the event rode in Aurora Driver trucks on a segment of the commercial Dallas-to-Houston route with the driver's seat empty. The release calls it an industry-first driverless passenger ride. The session was webcast from ir.aurora.tech with a 30-day replay, and a Partner Summit for several dozen current and prospective customers followed the next day.

Chris Urmson, co-founder and chief executive, said the company has emerged from its building phase. David Maday, the chief financial officer, said: "This momentum puts us firmly on the path to profitability."

What is already sold for 2026

The company says it nearly doubled its number of driverless customers during 2026 and is fully allocated to end the year with 200 driverless trucks under Transport as a Service agreements, where Aurora runs the trucks for the customer.

The 2030 plan leans on a second model, Driver as a Service. Under it a carrier buys and operates the trucks and pays for the Aurora Driver. Hirschbach plans to scale to 500 autonomous trucks that it will own and operate this way, with deliveries starting in 2027. Aurora says it is negotiating similar agreements with several other customers.

Utilisation and miles to date

Aurora gives two operating numbers. Trucks running for McLane, Werner and other customers average more than 225,000 miles a year, which the company says is more than double what a traditional truck covers. The Aurora Driver has also completed over 500,000 driverless miles since commercial launch.

Cheaper hardware, built on the line

The second-generation hardware kit is designed for a one-million-mile life and costs less than half as much as its predecessor, which the release names as a key step towards positive gross profit.

Production is moving into the truck makers' own plants:

• Roush has begun volume upfitting of International LT Series trucks and targets 20 trucks a week in October 2026.
• The Aurora Driver is integrated lineside on the Volvo VNL Autonomous at Volvo's New River Valley plant in Virginia.
• PACCAR and Aurora are defining a path to launch third-generation hardware on PACCAR's future autonomy-enabled platform, built on PACCAR assembly lines.

The companies around the plan

The release names the ecosystem partners as AUMOVIO, FedEx, Hirschbach, McLane, NVIDIA, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Werner. Aurora points investors to its annual report filed on 11 February and its quarterly report for the second quarter filed on 29 July for the audited figures behind the plan.

Related on TrustList:

• Aurora and McLane move refrigerated food freight to driverless trucks
• Hirschbach signs non-binding deal for 500 Aurora driverless trucks
• Kodiak starts driver-in freight pilot from Fresno to Los Angeles

Sources

• Aurora Innovation: Aurora outlines 2030 vision to scale to 30,000 driverless trucks at Analyst and Investor Day, 23 September 2026
• Aurora: Driving the Inflection, 8 October 2026