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A common stock, par value $0.00001 per share
iAUR
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Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosures.
On September 28, 2022, Aurora Innovation, Inc. (the "Company" or "Aurora") issued a press
release announcing key technical advancements on the path to commercial launch for the Aurora Driver, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated herein by reference. These technical advancements in the Aurora Driver Beta 4.0 release will enable the Aurora Driver to (i) detect and maneuver around a variety of objects and debris on the road and (ii) detect repainted lane lines in complex construction zones, both of which are key capabilities described in the Company’s product roadmap. A copy of the Company’s roadmap is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.2 and is incorporated
herein by reference.
In addition, the Company announced through the press release a framework that it plans to use in future quarters to share a measure of progress toward the commercial launch of Aurora Horizon, the Company's autonomous trucking service (the "Autonomy Readiness Measure").
The Autonomy Readiness Measure is the weighted function of completeness across all claims under the Company’s Safety Case (defined below). Aurora uses judgment
when applying weighting to individual pieces of evidence that support the claims that Aurora is making in its Safety Case (e.g., based on complexity, effort required to complete, scope of the Company’s commercial launch route, etc.) as well as when evaluating the percentage complete of a particular piece of evidence. Aurora's Safety Case is an internally-derived, claims-based approach that provides a generalized structured argument to addressing safety items implicated by developing and operating self-driving technology on public roads. It incorporates safety elements from federal and state guidance, industry standards and best practices, and Aurora's internally developed requirements, including policies, test results, and procedures. Taken together, once Aurora determines that appropriate evidence has been gathered for each claim that comprises the Safety Case, the Safety Case will
provide a clear and defensible argument that the Aurora Driver is acceptably safe on public roads. The Safety Case is scalable across various routes and use cases, and when commercializing each new route and use case for the Aurora Driver, the Company can quickly identify which claims might be impacted that may require additional or revised evidence applicable to the route or use case.
A closed Safety Case is Aurora’s bar for launch; therefore the Company anticipates the Autonomy Readiness Measure achieving 100% prior to commercial launch.
The Company
also announced through the press release that it plans to disclose supplemental information regarding the on-road performance of the Aurora Driver (the "on-road autonomy performance indicator" or the "Performance Indicator").
The Performance Indicator is a quarterly measurement, reflected as a percentage of total truck miles driven in service of commercial pilots, plus other commercially representative testing (which, for the avoidance of doubt, do not include development tests or miles driven in manual mode for data collection) over the quarter, that incorporates three components:
•Miles driven during the quarter that did not require support, with support meaning human assistance
via a vehicle operator touch (i.e., intervention) or other on-site support;
•Miles where the vehicle received support but where it is determined, through internal analysis including simulation, that the support received was not required by the Aurora Driver; and
•Miles driven in autonomy with remote input from the Aurora Beacon tool, which is Aurora's cloud-based mission control system that will be offered to customers as part of Aurora Horizon. The remote input tool within Aurora Beacon does not permit for the remote operation of a vehicle, but instead is a remote input tool that allows remote specialists to provide high-level guidance to Aurora Driver-powered vehicles when they encounter a situation where the autonomy solution is unclear.
There
is judgment involved in using internal analysis to determine whether or not support was necessary. The Performance Indicator is not Aurora’s bar for launch. It may not improve linearly as it approaches commercial launch, and Aurora does not expect it to be 100% prior to commercial launch because certain situations (e.g., flat tires) will always require on-site support.
The information in this Item 7.01 (including the exhibit) shall not be deemed to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section and is not incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, hereunto duly authorized.
