Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) used its fourth-quarter 2025 business review call to highlight what CEO Chris Urmson described as a “defining year” for the company, pointing to the launch of what it called the first driverless commercial trucking operations on U.S. public roads and rapid progress in expanding both its operating domain and commercialization plans.
Driverless operations and expanded operating domain
Urmson said the Aurora Driver surpassed 250,000 driverless miles in January, nearly tripling cumulative miles achieved through early October. He said the company maintained 100% on-time performance and a “perfect driverless safety record,” with zero Aurora Driver-attributed collisions.
The company also disclosed it began supervised autonomous operations on bidirectional lanes between Dallas and Laredo and is targeting driverless validation “this quarter.” Urmson described the 400-plus-mile route as a major international trade corridor and said the ability to expand from Fort Worth–Phoenix to Dallas–Laredo required a “very, very light lift,” which the company framed as evidence that the Aurora Driver is becoming sufficiently generalized to expand across the Sunbelt in 2026.
Mapping automation and customer endpoints
Urmson said lane expansion depends on two components: generalizable driving skills and mapping. He said Aurora has made progress in automating the creation of content for Aurora Atlas, its high-definition mapping system, using “Verifiable AI” systems that can generate semantic map components from collected data with little or no human assistance. He said the company expects the pace of map expansion to increase as it further optimizes its cloud mapping software.
Alongside lane expansion, Aurora said it has begun supervised autonomous operations supporting multiple customer facilities. Urmson provided examples:
- Endpoint operations in Laredo for Hirschbach to support Driscoll’s.
- Operations along I-20 for Detmar between a facility in Midland, Texas, and Capital Sand mining sites.
- Operations for “one of the leading carriers in the U.S.” from its Phoenix facility.
Commercialization plans: new fleet, observers, and customer demand
Aurora reiterated plans tied to its second-generation “Harbor” hardware kit and a new fleet of trucks expected in the coming months. Urmson said the new fleet is intended to enable driverless operations “without a partner-requested observer,” which management presented as an important step to scale.
Executives said the company’s objective is to exit 2026 with more than 200 driverless trucks in operation. In the Q&A, management clarified that the 200-plus trucks target refers to “no observer, driverless, no one behind the wheel.” However, executives also distinguished between “driverless” miles and the current use of a ride observer who “does not operate” the vehicle and has no responsibility to do so. The company said the planned shift is removal of the requested partner ride observer requirement rather than a change in how the Aurora Driver operates.
Management said capacity is committed through the third quarter of 2026, with contracts for the fourth quarter to be finalized once year-end truck supply is confirmed. Looking beyond 2026, executives said customer interest supports a pipeline of “thousands of trucks” as Aurora moves toward a driver-as-a-service (DAS) model beginning in 2027 and beyond.
The company also discussed a newly announced agreement with Detmar Logistics, which Urmson called an example of inbound interest following Aurora’s commercial launch. Under the plan described on the call, Aurora Driver-powered trucks will haul frac sand for over 20 hours a day across a 60-mile route in 2026, with 80% of miles on I-20. Aurora said supervised autonomous operations have begun, and that the hauls for Detmar will transition to driverless when the second fleet of driverless trucks is deployed, expected in the second quarter of 2026.
OEM partnerships and truck supply roadmap
Aurora emphasized its “vehicle-agnostic” approach and multi-OEM strategy, anchored by partnerships with Volvo and PACCAR. Urmson said the Volvo partnership entered the industrialization phase, noting the first group of Volvo VNL Autonomous trucks equipped with the Aurora Driver came off a pilot line at Volvo’s New River Valley facility after line-side integration of Aurora’s second-generation commercial hardware kit. He said those trucks would be integrated into Aurora’s driverless fleet once Volvo completes validation of vehicle-level firmware needed for driverless operations.
For nearer-term capacity, Aurora said it is advancing a program based on the International LT truck targeted to launch in the second quarter of 2026. Management said these trucks will enable driverless operations without a partner-requested observer and that Aurora selected Roush as the upfitter, initially equipping its manufacturing footprint to produce 20 trucks per week later in the year.
Looking further out, Aurora said it continues to make progress on a third-generation commercial hardware kit with AUMOVIO intended to supply “tens of thousands of trucks.” Urmson also noted AUMOVIO selected Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider to support development of an industrialized fallback system for the Aurora Driver.
Financial results and 2026 outlook
CFO David Maday reported fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $1 million, generated across driverless and vehicle-operator-supervised commercial loads for customers including Hirschbach, Uber Freight, Werner, FedEx, Schneider, and Volvo Autonomous Solutions, among others. He said revenue rose 25% sequentially from the third quarter, driven by a record number of commercial miles in the quarter. Aurora recognized $3 million in revenue in fiscal 2025; total “year-adjusted revenue,” including pilot revenue earned in the first quarter before commercial launch-driven revenue recognition began in the second quarter, was $4 million.
Fourth-quarter operating loss, including stock-based compensation, totaled $238 million. Excluding $48 million in stock-based compensation, Aurora reported R&D of $155 million, SG&A of $30 million, and cost of revenue of $6 million. The company used approximately $146 million of operating cash in the fourth quarter and $581 million in fiscal 2025. Capital expenditures were $8 million in the quarter and $31 million for the year. Maday said cash spend came in meaningfully below Aurora’s externally communicated target, which he attributed to “strong fiscal discipline.”
Aurora ended 2025 with nearly $1.5 billion in liquidity, including cash and short-term and long-term investments. The company also disclosed net proceeds of $15 million from issuance of Class A common stock via its at-the-market (ATM) program during the fourth quarter, used to fund tax liabilities associated with vesting of employee restricted stock units.
For 2026, Aurora guided to revenue of $14 million to $16 million, which Maday said would be “back-end loaded,” with the fourth quarter projected to contribute more than half of full-year revenue as the company scales driverless operations without a partner-requested observer after the new fleet launch. Management said it expects to exit 2026 with more than 200 driverless trucks in operation, translating to roughly $80 million in revenue on a run-rate basis for its transportation-as-a-service business (in which it owns and operates the trucks) heading into 2027.
On costs, Aurora said the second-generation commercial kit is expected to drive a 50%-plus reduction in hardware costs. The company is targeting break-even gross margin on a run-rate basis exiting 2026. Maday said Aurora expects quarterly cash use of approximately $190 million to $220 million on average in 2026 and believes it has sufficient liquidity to reach positive free cash flow in 2028. Management said it plans to use the ATM to fund ongoing RSU tax liabilities and cash bonus payments through 2027, and may also use the ATM or other mechanisms to maintain an “appropriate minimum cash balance” for longer-term operations.
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.
