Toyota And Denso Teaming Up With Aurora On Robotaxis

Aurora Innovation, the self-driving technology company that recently bought Uber’s Advanced Technology Group, has a new partnership with Toyota and the carmaker’s parts affiliate Denso that will get Aurora’s autonomous system into prototype robotaxis this year.

The project between the Silicon Valley startup led by the former head of Google’s self-driving car project and the Japanese auto giant will start with the installation of Aurora software, sensors and computing system into a fleet of hybrid Toyota Sienna minivans that will be ready for testing in late 2021. Toyota previously had partnered with Uber on self-driving technology–and owns a small stake in Aurora as a result of its purchase of Uber ATG–but this is a new alliance, says Aurora cofounder Sterling Anderson, who’s also its chief product officer.

“Many of the objectives of the partnership head in a similar direction to what an ATG partnership would have secured (for Toyota), for instance ultimately to deploy, at scale, in ride-hailing networks, but this is a new arrangement and is specifically between Aurora and Toyota,” he tells Forbes. While the project is focused on outfitting minivans to operate as autonomous robotaxis, Aurora is looking at other potential Toyota models, including the e-Palette prototype utility vehicle the automaker debuted at CES in 2018. “This is a partnership to begin kind of an exploration for a number of different product lines.”

Aurora will also discuss options for mass-production of its hardware with Denso. Toyota isn’t making any additional investment in Aurora as part of the project, he said. 

Snagging a new partnership with Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, is a critical step for Aurora which last month also announced plans to work with truckmaker Paccar on autonomous big rigs. The robotaxi project with Toyota and Denso, one of the world’s biggest parts makers, is also a bit of surprise since Aurora had shifted its focus primarily to robotic trucking for the time being. Still, it also has a partnership with Uber, which invested $400 million in Aurora at the time of the Uber ATG sale, which may show up in a second phase of its Toyota alliance.

“This agreement contemplates a commercial discussion between our companies to lay the groundwork for mass production and launch of these vehicles on ridehailing networks, including Uber’s in the next few years,” Anderson said.

Toyota has its own internal autonomous tech team, but the Aurora project is a complementary one, said Keiji Yamamoto, president of the automaker’s Connected Company Operating. “By combining our expertise and know-how in vehicle control systems, mass-production, connected car technology and our advanced safety support systems with Aurora’s industry-leading approach to self-driving technology, we aim to commercialize and deliver safe, high-quality, and affordable autonomous ride-sharing vehicles and services.”

Founded by Chris Urmson, who left Google’s self-driving team in 2016, Anderson, who previously led Tesla’s Autopilot program, and Drew Bagnell, a Carnegie Mellon University roboticist who also worked for Uber, Aurora has raised more than $1 billion to perfect its approach to autonomous driving. It’s also seeking to remain an independent supplier of the technology, making its recent industry partnerships critical to competing with bigger rivals including Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors-backed Cruise. 

Toyota is the “preferred vehicle brand for transporting riders on ride-hailing networks, so we’re excited and honored to work with them to unlock driverless mobility services with the Aurora Driver,” Urmson said in a statement. “Our development work on highway driving to support our first commercial product, a driverless truck, will also be critical for safely moving people, as a significant fraction of ride-share bookings today require the ability to drive over 50 mph.”