Photo: Aurora
Aurora Innovation has just unveiled its test fleet of autonomous Toyota Sienna vehicles, featuring the carmaker’s Vehicle Control Interface (VCI) and the ‘Sienna Autono-MaaS (S-AM) platform. The latter serves as the backbone platform for the Aurora Connect ride-hailing product, which was unveiled last year in prototype form.
Since then, Aurora kept on refining the hardware, while Toyota built a larger fleet of platform vehicles.
Aurora have been testing their autonomous fleet on highways and suburban Texas streets, giving the Aurora Driver system plenty of chances to tackle U-turns, high-speed mergers and lane changes, including those in response to vehicles on the shoulder. The system is also able to react to certain roadworks, stop-and-go traffic, various weather, plus it can detect pedestrians, motorcyclists and traffic lights.
Recently, Toyota executives were invited to experience the Aurora Driver system in the Toyota S-AM – they were picked up at the carmaker’s headquarters and driven autonomously on a portion of the route, which normally would lead to the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
“We congratulate Aurora on reaching their milestone of integrating its Aurora Driver technology onto our Toyota Autono-MaaS platform vehicle,” said Ted Ogawa, President and CEO of Toyota Motor North America. “The route represented what we would expect going to the airport in the future, and we look forward to seeing Aurora’s future deployment plans.”
Meanwhile, Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson added that his company has designed and ultimately delivered a test fleet capable of making the ride-hailing experience “comfortable, convenient and safe.”
We should note that Aurora’s rival Waymo currently charges passengers of its autonomous minivans for rides in certain suburban areas in Phoenix, although airport pickups are not yet available. Earlier this week, Waymo said that it is ready to deploy autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, but without actually revealing a timeframe for the launch.
Aurora have been testing their autonomous fleet on highways and suburban Texas streets, giving the Aurora Driver system plenty of chances to tackle U-turns, high-speed mergers and lane changes, including those in response to vehicles on the shoulder. The system is also able to react to certain roadworks, stop-and-go traffic, various weather, plus it can detect pedestrians, motorcyclists and traffic lights.
Recently, Toyota executives were invited to experience the Aurora Driver system in the Toyota S-AM – they were picked up at the carmaker’s headquarters and driven autonomously on a portion of the route, which normally would lead to the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
“We congratulate Aurora on reaching their milestone of integrating its Aurora Driver technology onto our Toyota Autono-MaaS platform vehicle,” said Ted Ogawa, President and CEO of Toyota Motor North America. “The route represented what we would expect going to the airport in the future, and we look forward to seeing Aurora’s future deployment plans.”
Meanwhile, Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson added that his company has designed and ultimately delivered a test fleet capable of making the ride-hailing experience “comfortable, convenient and safe.”
We should note that Aurora’s rival Waymo currently charges passengers of its autonomous minivans for rides in certain suburban areas in Phoenix, although airport pickups are not yet available. Earlier this week, Waymo said that it is ready to deploy autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, but without actually revealing a timeframe for the launch.
Google News