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Your usual host Kirsten has passed the reins to me, Rebecca Bellan, for the day, and I want to talk about Aurora Innovation and its last-minute save.
Aurora had been promising to launch the U.S.’ first fully autonomous commercial trucking service in April this year, after pushing back its original 2024 debut. With just (proverbial) minutes to spare, Aurora pulled off the win.
Aurora says it has run over 1,200 miles of freight this week between Dallas and Houston with launch customers Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight. That’s with a single truck, for now. Aurora plans to build up to “tens of self-driving trucks” and expand to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025 as it continues to run more freight for customers with its fleet of supervised autonomous trucks.
It’s a huge step for Aurora, and for the industry. But as Trump’s tariffs grind many shipments to a halt, is Aurora well positioned to seize the moment, or could prolonged delays threaten its survival?
A little bird
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin
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Deals!
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin
AeroVironment, a drone maker, has completed its acquisition of space and defense engineering company BlueHalo. The $4.1 billion all-stock deal will see the merged companies become a new kind of defense tech called AV that can build tech across all warfighting domains: air, land, sea, space, and cyber.
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True Anomaly, a defense-focused aerospace startup building spacecraft and software for U.S. national security missions, raised $260 million in a Series C round led by VC firm Accel.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin
Autonomous vehicles
May Mobility is the latest to join Uber’s roster of autonomous vehicle collaborators. The two announced this week plans to deploy May’s autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform by the end of 2025, starting in Arlington, Texas, as part of a multi-year partnership.
Momenta, the Chinese AV startup, is also workin …