Autonomous-vehicle technology company Aurora on Monday unveiled a Toyota Motor Corp.’s Sienna minivan prototype specifically designed for autonomous ride-hailing.
That’s the vehicle upon which Aurora plans to launch its ride-hailing business with Uber Technologies Inc.
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in late 2024.
Aurora, which merged with a blank-check company in July and plans to go public in the coming weeks or months, said it has moved “faster than anticipated” in readying the vehicle in partnership with Toyota.
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“As we progress through our development program with Toyota, we’ll expand testing of this prototype, refine it through pilots, validate it in accordance with our Safety Case Framework and Toyota’s own safety standards, and expect to launch it on ride-hailing networks at scale,” Aurora said in a statement.
Read more: Chasing Tesla: Here are the current electric vehicle plans of every major car maker
The fleet’s testing will be done in Pittsburgh, Dallas, the San Francisco Bay Area, and additional, yet-to-be-disclosed cities, the company said.
Shares of Uber were caught in the broad downdraft for U.S. equities on Monday, and so far this year have lost more than 20%. That contrasts with an advance of around 15% for the S&P 500 index.
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This post was originally published on Market Watch
