Aurora, Continental & NVIDIA Team up to Deploy Driverless Trucks at Scale

Aurora, Continental, and NVIDIA have announced a long-term strategic partnership to deploy driverless trucks at scale, powered by the next-generation NVIDIA DRIVE Thor system-on-a-chip (SoC). The announcement was made at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.

Aurora – a US developer of autonomous trucks – is in the final stages of validating the Aurora Driver for driverless operations on public roads.

The Aurora Driver is equipped with a powerful computer and sensors, including lidar, radar, and cameras, enabling it to safely operate at highway speeds.

NVIDIA’s DRIVE Thor and DriveOS will be integrated into the Aurora Driver, an SAE L4 autonomous driving system that Continental plans to mass-manufacture in 2027.

Other mobility companies adopting NVIDIA DRIVE AGX for their next-generation advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous vehicle roadmaps include BYD, JLR, Li Auto, Lucid, Mercedes-Benz, NIO, Nuro, Rivian, Volvo Cars, Waabi, Wayve, Xiaomi, ZEEKR, and Zoox.

Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder at Aurora, says: “Delivering one driverless truck will be monumental. Deploying thousands will change the way we live. NVIDIA is the market leader in accelerated computing, and they’ll strengthen our ecosystem of partners and our ability to deliver safe and reliable driverless trucks to our customers at scale.”

Aruna Anand, President & CEO, Automotive, Continental North America, adds: “Developing, industrializing, and manufacturing powerful self-driving hardware at commercial scale requires unique and unparalleled expertise. Our industry-first collaboration with Aurora and NVIDIA to deliver driverless trucks positions Continental at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology and will drive value to our business.”

Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at NVIDIA, comments: “The combination of NVIDIA’s automotive-grade DRIVE Thor platform with Aurora’s advanced self-driving trucking technology and Continental’s manufacturing and integration expertise is set to help drive the future of autonomous trucking, helping make roads safer while driving up operational efficiency.” 

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 products for trucking and ride-hailing.