Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR), the leader in self-driving freight, today announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Charger Logistics under which Charger intends to purchase up to 500 Aurora Driver-powered trucks. The agreement builds upon Charger’s existing contract signed in July, underscoring the carrier’s belief that the Aurora Driver will be critical to expanding its network and strengthening its business.
“Since launching autonomous operations along the Laredo corridor, we’ve realized immediate operational benefits that point to a clear path to scaling,” said Andy Khera, President of Charger Logistics. “Aurora’s plans to open long-haul, high-volume routes position us to scale geographically while we integrate autonomy from our TMS to the road, building a resilient and autonomous ecosystem for our customers.”
“Andy and the team have decades of experience leveraging technology to move large volumes of freight across the continent, which makes owning driverless trucks a natural next step,” said Zac Andreoni, Vice President of Business Development at Aurora. “Owning the physical asset is the logical choice for our customers: it makes today’s operations more efficient and enables carriers to grow their business, keeping them competitive.”
Path to Owning 500 Driverless Trucks
Charger Logistics operates across the U.S. and Mexico, moving goods for the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, automotive, and retail industries. Under the non-binding MOU, the carrier would purchase 500 Aurora Driver-powered trucks with delivery taking place over 2027 and 2028. Charger plans to deploy the trucks on current and new high-volume routes near the border and throughout the country.
Upon the final agreement, Charger intends to subscribe to Aurora’s Driver as a Service (DaaS) model, where ownership over the physical asset allows them to maximize Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings. In parallel, Aurora benefits from an expected high-margin, capital-efficient, and asset-light business. DaaS agreements are a critical component to Aurora’s plan to scale to 30,000 driverless trucks in 2030. Additional Aurora customers are pursuing DaaS contracts to own and operate their own fleets of driverless trucks, demonstrating both the demand for autonomous trucks at scale and the confidence customers have in Aurora to deliver.
“With the launch of our second-generation hardware and trucks, Aurora is ready to support our customers’ ambitions to grow their networks and move more freight with driverless trucks,” added Andreoni.
