Aurora signs commercial deal with McLane to run driverless trucks between Dallas and Houston A commercial partnership will run Aurora’s autonomous trucks along the Dallas–Houston corridor, removing drivers from cabs while keeping human observers onboard. As stated by Techcrunch Aurora Innovation has signed a commercial agreement with McLane to use autonomous trucks for distribution between Dallas and Houston, becoming one of the new players introducing autonomous technologies after a lengthy pilot period. Under the terms of the contract, trucks equipped with Aurora’s autonomous driving system will transport goods between Dallas and Houston without a driver on board; however there will be a so-called ‘human observer’ who does not operate the vehicle, per the contract with the manufacturer Paccar. Aurora also plans to expand its presence on new routes between McLane’s distribution centers across the Sun Belt in the United States by the end of the year. The pilot program began in 2023 with autonomous trucks involving a safety operator; subsequently the initiative expanded to two trips per day between Dallas and Houston. Timeline and Future Plans McLane has approved the transition to driverless operations, which are now running seven days a week between Dallas and Houston. The new approach envisions that the long autonomous portion of the route ends with handing over to a McLane driver for local deliveries to customers, including to fast-food chains; the handover takes place at the company’s terminals in Dallas and Houston, located directly adjacent to the highway. This deal underscores Aurora’s progression from an autonomous truck developer to an operator commercially running driverless routes. A year ago, the company launched a commercial driverless-truck service in Texas. Since then, Aurora has signed a deal with Detmar Logistics to transport frac sand, and last month Hirschbach Motor Lines agreed to purchase 500 Aurora trucks; the deal