Aurora Innovation, a self-driving car technology company that aims to launch a "driverless" self-driving truck business by the end of 2024, laid off dozens of employees this month, according to sources familiar with the situation. The Pittsburgh-based company, which also has facilities in California, Colorado, Texas and Montana, later confirmed it laid off about 3% of its workforce earlier this year following an organizational review.
Aurora employed approximately 1,800 people as of the end of 2023, according to the company.
Christopher Barrett, Aurora's senior vice president of people, issued a statement via email: "Recently, as we move toward commercial launch, we conducted a review of the entire organization to ensure that we are working as effectively as possible and achieving our goals at the speed we need. Our ambitious goals. Through this process, we have eliminated a limited number of positions, impacting 3% of our total workforce. We have been very thoughtful in allocating our resources to minimize such actions during this recent period of market uncertainty. We appreciate the contributions of these individuals and support them through this transition."
The layoffs come as Aurora moves forward with plans to deploy a fleet of self-driving trucks that can cruise U.S. highways without human drivers behind the wheel. The company said it expects to have as many as 20 Level 8 driverless trucks available by the end of 2024. Initially, these driverless trucks (i.e. without humans behind the wheel) will deliver freight between Dallas and Houston, a route the company has been using for testing.
Aurora is also working with auto supplier Continental on a more than $300 million project to mass-produce autonomous vehicle hardware for commercial self-driving trucks. Aurora recently completed the first phase of the project, allowing Continental to develop a prototype ahead of its planned start of production in 2027.
Developing self-driving car technology that is safe enough to operate on public roads has proven to be a costly endeavor that has led to the collapse or acquisition of numerous startups. This wave of consolidation kicked off in 2020 and has continued into 2023 due to the economic downturn.
Aurora, founded in 2017 by alumni of Tesla, Uber and Waymo, went public in hopes of raising the capital needed to commercialize cutting-edge technology. Aurora became a public company in 2021 after merging with a special purpose acquisition company launched by LinkedIn co-founder and investor Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus and managing partner Michael Thompson.
Aurora is now one of the few remaining companies focused on commercializing self-driving big rigs. Privately held Kodiak Robotics, Torc Robotics and Sweden's Einride are also developing self-driving trucks. The road hasn't been smooth sailing, though, as the cost of hiring engineers to develop the technology coupled with a sluggish economy has drained funds.
In 2022, Aurora CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson proposed a series of cost-cutting and cash-generating options to the board of directors in a leaked memo, including hiring freezes, asset divestitures, small-scale fundraising, privatization, and even selling itself to high-profile technology companies Apple and Microsoft.
The company assured investors that it had enough capital to get through to mid-2024, and while some cost reductions were made, real relief came in July 2023 when the company completed an $820 million capital raise, including public and concurrent private stock offerings.
The company said at the time that the stock sale would help fund a commercial launch in late 2024 and operations "through 2025." Aurora reiterated its financial position in its third-quarter 2023 earnings report and said it expects its $1.5 billion in total liquidity to support its planned commercial launches and fund operations in the second half of 2025.