What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2025-02-14 compared with 2024-02-15 · 49 added, 49 removed, 380 unchanged (21% of the section changed)

INFORMATION ABOUT AURORA

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this section to the “Company,” “Aurora,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to the business of Aurora Innovation Holdings, Inc.

and its subsidiaries prior to the consummation of the Merger (defined below), and to Aurora Innovation, Inc.

and its subsidiaries after the completion of the Merger.

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this section to the “Company,” “Aurora,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to the business of Aurora Innovation, Inc.

and its subsidiaries.

Corporate History and Background

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Drafting on the revenue and technical capability we expect this trucking product to generate, we plan to leverage the extensibility of the Aurora Driver to deploy and scale into the passenger mobility and local goods delivery markets.

Today, we operate our self-driving test vehicle fleet in diverse weather and operating environments, across the Bay Area, Pittsburgh and Texas, allowing us to create a more robust self-driving system.

We have operated our self-driving test vehicles in diverse weather and operating environments, including in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Texas, allowing us to create a more robust self-driving system.

We also autonomously haul (under the supervision of vehicle operators) truck freight on behalf of our pilot customers in preparation for driverless commercialization.

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We made foundational investments early on, based on our prior experience in the self-driving industry, that allow us to accelerate development and position our platform for long-term scalability.

Some of these foundational investments include developing the Aurora Driver with what we believe to be the optimal combination of machine-learned and rule-based approaches.

Some of these foundational investments include developing the Aurora Driver with what we believe to be the optimal combination of artificial intelligence and machine-learning with rule-based approaches.

We have used a “Verifiable AI” approach, intended to leverage advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver a practical, verifiable, and commercially scalable solution.

We have also built a proprietary Virtual Testing Suite, which makes our development more efficient and faster than traditional approaches that rely heavily on on-road vehicle fleets.

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We are proud that these industry leaders have selected Aurora as their self-driving partner.

During 2023, we operated commercial trucking pilots with FedEx, Werner, Schneider, Hirschbach and Uber Freight through which we regularly and autonomously hauled loads under the supervision of vehicle operators, and also explored integrating access to Uber Freight’s digital freight network within our autonomous trucking subscription service.

During 2024, we operated commercial trucking pilots with FedEx, Hirschbach, Schneider, Uber Freight, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner, among others, through which we regularly and autonomously hauled loads under the supervision of vehicle operators, and are also integrating access to Uber Freight’s digital freight network within our autonomous trucking subscription service.

Further, we continued our strategic collaboration with Ryder Systems, piloting on-site fleet maintenance to support current autonomous freight pilot operations and prepare for commercial operation at scale.

We expect to ultimately commercialize the Aurora Driver in a Driver as a Service (“DaaS”) business model, in which we will supply self-driving technology and earn revenue on a fee per mile basis.

We do not intend to own nor operate large vehicle fleets ourselves.

We envision a two-phase process for ownership and operation of Aurora Driver-powered self-driving vehicles.

Early in our commercialization, we intend to own or lease and operate an initial fleet of trucks and will invest in self-driving system hardware, base vehicles, and commercial facilities (such as freight terminals).

Following this initial phase, we expect to ultimately commercialize the Aurora Driver in a Driver as a Service (“DaaS”) business model, in which we will supply self-driving technology and earn revenue on a fee per mile basis.

In this second phase, we do not intend to own nor operate large vehicle fleets ourselves.

We will partner with automotive companies, fleet operators, and other third parties to commercialize and support Aurora Driver-powered vehicles.

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We expect the DaaS model to enable an asset-light and high-margin revenue stream for Aurora, while allowing us to scale more rapidly through partnerships.

As of December 31, 2023, we have assembled an approximately 1,800-person team, consisting of leading experts in robotics, machine learning, hardware design, software engineering, systems engineering, and safety.

As of December 31, 2024, we have assembled an approximately 1,800-person team, consisting of leading experts in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, hardware design, software engineering, systems engineering, and safety.

We believe that our combined experience and expertise allow us to move faster and more efficiently than our competitors as we make purposeful, foundational technological investments in safe and scalable self-driving technology.

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• greater individual productivity.

We plan to launch Aurora Horizon, our driverless trucking subscription service, as our first commercial product.

We plan to launch Aurora Driver for Freight, our driverless trucking subscription service, as our first commercial product.

We have prioritized this market as we believe it is an optimal first product for both commercial and technical reasons:

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Aurora’s investment in long-range perception, including Aurora’s proprietary FirstLight Lidar, enables us to solve this, while benefiting from the other elements that make deploying trucks on highways an advantageous initial market entry point.

During 2024, we operated commercial trucking pilots with FedEx, Hirschbach, Schneider, Uber Freight, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner, among others, through which we regularly and autonomously hauled loads under the supervision of vehicle operators, and also explored integrating access to Uber Freight’s digital freight network within our autonomous trucking subscription service.

We also continued our strategic collaboration with Ryder Systems, piloting on-site fleet maintenance to support current autonomous freight pilot operations and prepare for commercial operation at scale.

We plan to initially launch Aurora Horizon in Texas, which has the largest freight market in the US, a favorable business and regulatory environment, and moderate weather.

We plan to initially launch Aurora Driver for Freight in Texas, which has the largest freight market in the US, a favorable business and regulatory environment, and moderate weather.

These characteristics make it an attractive market for our initial driverless launch.

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Passenger Mobility

Our second core market focuses on passenger mobility, initially targeting the ride hailing space with Aurora Connect, our driverless ride hailing subscription service.

Our second core market focuses on passenger mobility, initially targeting the ride hailing space with Aurora Driver for Rides, our driverless ride hailing subscription service.

As it exists today, however, passenger mobility is subject to inefficiencies and responsible for notable negative impacts – roadway deaths, lost productivity, and greenhouse gas emissions.

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airport trips, commutes, social rides) that further improve the experience offered today.

We plan to launch Aurora Connect following the launch and initial expansion of Aurora Horizon, leveraging our strategic relationships with Toyota and Uber.

We plan to launch Aurora Driver for Rides following the launch and expansion of Aurora Driver for Freight, leveraging our strategic relationships with Toyota and Uber.

As we use the same Aurora Driver hardware and software as for trucking, we will leverage capabilities already in use by our trucking product.

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Our commercial operations will start in the United States, but we expect to broaden our footprint to include international markets where the value proposition of our technology is compelling, regulations are conducive, and roadways are comparable.

This includes, but is not limited to, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia and New Zealand.

This includes, but is not limited to, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Self-reinforcing effects of our business model

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Chris led the Google self-driving car team and was technology director for Carnegie Mellon when it won the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.

Sterling developed MIT’s Intelligent CoPilot, then launched Tesla’s Model X and Autopilot, and Drew worked for two decades at the intersection of machine learning and robotics across industry and academia at Carnegie Mellon.

Sterling developed MIT’s Intelligent CoPilot, then launched Tesla’s Model X and Autopilot, and Drew worked for two decades at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics across industry and academia at Carnegie Mellon.

As of December 31, 2024, Aurora has assembled an approximately 1,800-person team, of whom approximately 1,600 focus on engineering and product.

Our company consists of world-leaders in robotics, machine learning, hardware design, software engineering, systems engineering, and safety.

Our company consists of world-leaders in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, hardware design, software engineering, systems engineering, and safety.

Aurora has over 1,800 awarded and pending patents worldwide.

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We have invested in key areas of differentiation that we believe provide a long-term advantage, including:

• Careful integration of machine learning and engineering approaches throughout our perception and motion planning systems

• Careful integration of artificial intelligence / machine learning and engineering approaches throughout our perception and motion planning systems, combining the strengths of modern artificial intelligence and machine learning with invariants to build the Aurora Driver that is both human-like in its behavior and trained to follow the rules of the road;

• Virtual Testing Suite that allows for accelerated and efficient development;

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The Aurora Driver is designed to deliver fully autonomous driving without the need for a human in the vehicle.

This is classified as Level 4 – High Automation, with the vehicle capable of performing all driving functions under certain conditions, such as specific road types and weather.

This set of conditions is referred to as the system’s “operating domain.” We believe that, because a driver is no longer required inside the vehicle, this level of automation allows for step-change benefits in both safety and efficiency and opens massive commercial opportunities.

This is classified as Level 4 – High Driving Automation, with the vehicle capable of performing all driving functions under certain conditions, such as specific road types and weather.

This set of conditions is referred to as the system’s “operational design domain.” We believe that, because a human driver is no longer required inside the vehicle, this level of automation allows for step-change benefits in both safety and efficiency and opens massive commercial opportunities.

Aurora’s custom-designed hardware suite includes full sensor coverage on three sensing modalities:

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Driver as a Service Business Model

The Aurora Driver will be delivered as a service via Aurora Horizon, our driverless trucking subscription service, and Aurora Connect, our driverless ride hailing subscription service.

The Aurora Driver will be delivered as a service via Aurora Driver for Freight, our driverless trucking subscription service, and Aurora Driver for Rides, our driverless ride hailing subscription service.

We intend to partner with our ecosystem of OEMs, Tier 1 automotive supplier, fleet operators, and mobility and logistics services, as well as other third parties, to commercialize and support Aurora Driver-powered vehicles.

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We have made purposeful, foundational technological investments that we believe will enable us to move towards meaningful commercialization more safely, quickly, and broadly.

Examples of this approach, across both hardware & software, include:

Examples of this approach, across both hardware and software, include:

Proprietary lidar technology to unlock highway speeds;

Next-generation approach to Perception and Planning that leverages the distinct strengths of both machine learning and engineered approaches;

Next-generation Verifiable AI approach to Perception and Planning that leverages the distinct strengths of both artificial intelligence / machine learning and engineered approaches;

Common driver platform approach which allows our system to scale onto different vehicle types, such as cars and Class 8 trucks;

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Greater Range .

Our lidar can see nearly twice as far as a typical automotive lidar, because our coherent measurement enables single-photon sensitivity.

Our lidar can see nearly twice as far as a traditional automotive lidar, because our coherent measurement enables single-photon sensitivity.

The enhanced range of our FMCW lidar enables the detection and tracking of objects and actors at the very long ranges essential for high-speed driving.

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Therefore, it benefits from immunity to interference from ambient sunlight and to lidar-to-lidar interference, which will be important as self-driving fleets scale.

Leveraging the Best of Machine Learning and Engineered Approaches

Aurora’s approach to designing the Aurora Driver software leverages our team’s expertise in both machine learning and fundamental engineering.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning and Engineered Approaches

Aurora’s approach to designing the Aurora Driver software leverages our team’s expertise in both artificial intelligence / machine learning and fundamental engineering.

Use of either approach for solving a problem has advantages and disadvantages, and therefore the thoughtful fusion of both is critical to creating a safe and scalable system.

The key distinctions between machine learning and engineering are that:

The key distinctions between artificial intelligence / machine learning and engineering are that:

• Engineered systems are built by humans and tend to be simpler and more introspectable (i.e.

can understand ‘why’ an action is taken).

• Machine-learned systems are tuned and developed by algorithms and trained on data.

• Artificial intelligence / machine-learned systems are tuned and developed by algorithms and trained on data.

This can allow for greater nuance and complexity, and have the additional advantage that new data can improve overall performance.

However, machine-learned systems are less introspectable than engineered systems.

However, artificial intelligence / machine-learned systems are less introspectable than engineered systems.

Aurora’s software teams are selective in their application of each, and frequently bring both to bear on a single task in ways that utilize the independent strengths of each to create a higher-performance system.

We call this approach Verifiable AI.

An example of this is the Planning system.

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However, a system built around such guarantees alone would not drive in a human-like fashion, and may act in such a way that other road users would find it unpredictable.

Therefore, we also employ a machine-learned approach where the system learns from exemplary human drivers how to naturally behave during many commonplace interactions, such as merging onto a highway—subject to the buffers defined by the engineered system.

Therefore, we also employ an artificial intelligence / machine-learned approach where the system learns from exemplary human drivers how to naturally behave during many commonplace interactions, such as merging onto a highway—subject to the buffers defined by the engineered system.

Interleaving these two methods allows for the creation of verifiably safe, and natural, driving behavior.

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Our main sources of competition fall into two categories:

• Technology-focused companies building end-to-end technical capabilities for self-driving applications

• Technology-focused companies building technical capabilities for self-driving applications

• Automotive players building internal self-driving development programs

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Our patents and patent applications cover a broad range of technology relevant to self-driving vehicles.

Material Agreements

PACCAR Strategic Partnership

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In March 2021, Volvo selected us as its technology provider to develop and jointly commercialize Level 4 Class 8 trucks in North America.

Our first commercial truck with Volvo will be adapted to the requirements of the Aurora Driver.

These trucks will combine the best of Volvo’s technology with the Aurora Driver into a compelling and scalable logistics platform.

As Volvo’s official technology partner for US hub-to-hub solutions, the parties will develop an unprecedented autonomous offering with one of the most trusted commercial truck manufacturers in the world.

As Volvo’s official technology partner for US hub-to-hub solutions, the parties continue to develop an unprecedented autonomous offering with one of the most trusted commercial truck manufacturers in the world.

This partnership will be the center of the integration of the Aurora Driver into Volvo’s on-highway trucks and development of industry-leading Transportation as a Service solutions.

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Department of Transportation and its agencies.

At Aurora, we work with the federal government to ensure it maintains its regulatory authority over the design, construction, and performance of vehicles and applies that same authority to the regulation of autonomous vehicles.

As vehicles equipped with our sensors are deployed on public roads, we will be subject to legal and regulatory authorities such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), state agencies like Departments of Transportation or Departments of Motor Vehicles, and local transportation departments.

At Aurora, we work with the federal government to ensure it maintains its regulatory authority over the design, construction, and performance of motor vehicles, as well as over the safety of commercial motor vehicles operating interstate commerce, and applies that same authority to the regulation of autonomous vehicles.

As vehicles equipped with the Aurora Driver are deployed on public roads, we will be subject to legal and regulatory authorities such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), state agencies like Departments of Transportation or Departments of Motor Vehicles, and local transportation departments.

As the development of federal and state legal frameworks around autonomous vehicles continue to evolve, we may be subject to additional regulatory schemes.

We do not anticipate any near-term federal standards that would impede the foreseeable deployments of our technology.

We do not anticipate any near-term federal vehicle standards that would impede the foreseeable deployments of our technology.

federal regulations are largely permissive of deployments of higher levels of safe and responsible autonomous functionality.

States, such as Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas, continue to attract self-driving companies with a welcoming regulatory climate that provides the predictability necessary to deploy our technology in those communities.

Some states, particularly California, institute operational requirements or restrictions for certain autonomous functions.

States, such as Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas, continue to attract self-driving companies with a welcoming regulatory climate that provides the predictability necessary to deploy our technology in those communities.

Some states, however, institute operational requirements or restrictions for certain autonomous functions.

We believe such hurdles will be removed in the future as we work with our government partners to highlight the benefits of self-driving technology.

For example, while California regulation currently only permits the testing and deployment of autonomous light-duty vehicles, in August 2024, state regulators requested informal public input on draft regulatory language for the testing and deployment of autonomous trucks.

We work closely with state and local elected officials and regulatory bodies to ensure they continue to welcome the testing and deployment of self-driving vehicles on their roads.

By working with these officials to develop technology neutral policies that promote a diverse set of autonomous vehicle use cases and create a level playing field for the industry, we believe that Aurora will be able deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.

Similar such reporting and regulatory requirements exist or are being developed in foreign markets.

Similar reporting and regulatory requirements exist or are being developed in foreign markets.

For example, markets such as the EU also continue to develop their respective standards to define deployment requirements for higher levels of autonomy.

Germany, a leader in the automotive industry, recently approved legislation that would allow for the deployment of self-driving technology without a human driver.

Germany and the United Kingdom have both approved legislation that would allow for the deployment of self-driving technology without a human driver.

Given the intense work in these areas, we expect several foreign markets to provide a workable path forward for autonomous vehicle operations in their respective jurisdictions in the near-term.

We are subject to the Electronic Product Radiation Control Provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

These requirements are enforced by the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”).

Electronic product radiation includes laser technology.

Regulations governing these products are intended to protect the public from hazardous or unnecessary exposure.

Manufacturers are required to certify in product labeling and in reports to the FDA that their products comply with applicable performance standards as well as maintain manufacturing, testing, and distribution records for their products.

Similarly, as a company deploying cutting-edge technology with international partners, we are also subject to trade, customs product classification and sourcing regulations.

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Aurora remains deeply committed to the communities in which we have a presence - partnering with educational institutions and community based organizations to educate on the benefits of self-driving technology - investing in programs that address community workforce needs while strengthening the pipeline of diverse talent to fuel key business needs.

A key example of these efforts is the novel, widely acknowledged partnership Aurora has facilitated with Pittsburgh Technical College, which now offers an industry-aligned program to prepare technicians for key jobs.

In December 2024, we announced the opening of our new 78,000 square-foot office and testing facility located on Montana State University’s Innovation Campus in Bozeman, Montana, which builds upon the university’s 30-year history of producing industry-leading photonics engineers and innovations.

Aurora has also been working extensively with the Gallatin College Laser and Photonics Program in a partnership aimed at helping train and place the next generation of highly-trained technicians in the field of optics, laser, and photonics.

Additionally, throughout 2024, Aurora supported a community engagement roadshow along our commercial launch lane in Texas, engaging students and other stakeholders on autonomous trucking technology, careers, and the future.

Diversity and Inclusion

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We believe that autonomous trucks have the potential to materially reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions meaningfully through eco-driving, off-peak deployment, and capping peak speeds.

Human Capital

As of December 31, 2024, we had approximately 1,800 employees.

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Further, our references to website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only.

We announce material information to the public through filings with the SEC, the investor relations page on our website, press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

Channels of Distribution

We announce material information to the public through filings with the SEC, the investor relations page on our website, our X account (@aurora_inno), our LinkedIn account, press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

We encourage investors, the media, and others to follow the channels listed above and to review the information disclosed through such channels.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business