Autonomous trucking company now operating driverless lane during nighttime hours in Texas
Aurora Innovation, Inc. announced that one of the company’s driverless trucking lanes will operate at night as well as during the day to increase “truck utilization potential.”
On July 30, 2025, Aurora announced that autonomous trucking operations along the Dallas-to-Houston lane will now include nighttime driving in addition to the company’s established daytime route.
Aurora said adding nighttime driving hours to the lane “more than doubles truck utilization potential, significantly shortening delivery times on long-haul routes and creating a path to profitability for autonomous trucking.”
Aurora also suggested that adding nighttime operations to the Dallas-to-Houston lane would increase safety.
“Autonomous trucks can also make roads safer. Due to low visibility and driver fatigue, a disproportionate 37% of fatal crashes involving large trucks occur at night. The Aurora Driver reliably sees and understands the world around it day and night without ever getting tired. Powered by Aurora’s proprietary, long-range FirstLight Lidar, the Aurora Driver can detect objects in the dark more than 450 meters away, identifying pedestrians, vehicles, and debris up to 11-seconds sooner than a traditional driver,” the company said.
Aurora began making regular driverless customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston in May 2025.
In addition to the new nighttime autonomous operations, Aurora also announced the opening of a terminal in Phoenix.
“Efficiency, uptime, and reliability are important for our customers, and Aurora is showing we can deliver,” said Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO of Aurora. “Just three months after launch, we’re running driverless operations day and night and we’ve expanded our terminal network to Phoenix. Our rapid progress is beginning to unlock the full value of self-driving trucks for our customers, which has the potential to transform the trillion-dollar trucking industry.”