The commercial autonomous vehicle industry took two significant steps forward this week, as Aurora Innovation expanded its fully driverless freight operations to nighttime hours and opened a new terminal in Phoenix, while Aeva and Bendix announced a collaboration to enhance active safety systems in heavy-duty trucks.
Aurora, which began its commercial driverless service on public roads in Texas earlier this year, is now operating autonomous freight routes at night along the busy Dallas–Houston corridor. These operations are conducted using Aurora’s purpose-built self-driving technology stack, known as the Aurora Driver. Although safety operators remain in the cab at the request of pilot customers, Aurora confirmed the system is handling all driving tasks without human intervention.
The company stated that its trucks now run up to 12 trips per day on the corridor, including two overnight trips. This move to nighttime operations marks a major milestone in Aurora’s progress toward scalable, around-the-clock autonomous logistics. According to the company, its high-performance FirstLight LiDAR enables the trucks to detect obstacles more than 500 meters ahead, providing up to 11 seconds of reaction time, even in the dark.
In addition to its night-driving milestone, Aurora announced the opening of a new terminal in Phoenix, Arizona. The facility will support long-haul autonomous freight routes between Fort Worth and Phoenix, with drive times surpassing 15 hours—well beyond the federal hours-of-service limit for human drivers. Aurora’s expansion into the Southwest builds on its existing Texas network and signals the company’s intent to create a nationwide freight corridor.
As of late June, Aurora reported surpassing 20,000 fully driverless miles across its fleet of three Class 8 trucks, each completing regular freight hauls without on-road driver input. The company first began its driverless operations in May 2025, hauling commercial loads on the Dallas–Houston route, which has become a proving ground for autonomous freight.
Separately, Aeva, a leader in next-generation sensing and perception systems, announced a strategic partnership with Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems to jointly develop advanced driver-assist solutions for commercial fleets. The collaboration will integrate Aeva’s 4D LiDAR into Bendix’s collision mitigation platform, delivering what the companies describe as a high-performance L2+ active safety system tailored for North American heavy-duty trucks.
The integrated system is expected to provide significant enhancements in object detection, long-range perception, and reliability for fleet safety applications. Both companies emphasized the potential to accelerate the adoption of advanced driver assistance technologies in high-volume commercial vehicle segments, helping improve road safety and reduce fleet risk.
