Aurora’s self-driving truck program continues rolling.

Two months after inking one huge partnership, the corporate has added one other. On Tuesday morning, Aurora and Volvo Group unveiled plans to commercialize vans in a hub-to-hub service working throughout North America.

There may be not but a particular time-frame for deploying fleets of the Class 8 vans. Volvo stated it was a “long-term partnership” that spans “a number of years.” Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.

Collectively, the 2 firms intend to pursue a technique wherein vans function between switch hubs situated alongside highways. Aurora’s self-driving system will deal with the freeway miles; a human driver will drive the vans from these truckports on floor streets to warehouses.

Such an strategy gives “a transparent path towards environment friendly and protected on-highway options within the medium time period,” stated Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Options, the automaker’s self-driving division.

The tie-up comes two months after Aurora established a partnership with truck producer PACCAR. That relationship, wherein the 2 firms are integrating Aurora’s digital driver onto Kenworth and Peterbuilt vans, continues to evolve in parallel to the Volvo deal, in accordance with an Aurora spokesperson.

With PACCAR and Volvo now aboard, Aurora has cast partnerships with two of the three largest trucking producers within the U.S.

The potential of a partnership with Volvo had simmered for 3 years. Sterling Anderson, Aurora’s chief product officer and co-founder, stated the 2 firms truly constructed their first truck collectively in 2018, a faded-green car nicknamed Pistachio.

However the firms opted to not proceed till Aurora’s self-driving system developed the flexibility to understand the highway setting and objects in its path at higher distances. The next spring, Aurora acquired Blackmore, a Montana lidar firm that offered Aurora with sensors with a spread higher than 300 meters. Final month, Aurora acquired OURS Technology, one other lidar firm which executives say will assist them construct lidar items at scale.

With that groundwork in place, Aurora and Volvo might formalize their long-term plans.

“Our partnership with Volvo has been a very long time coming and hits the bottom operating,” Anderson wrote in a weblog submit. “We have constructed the suitable know-how and Volvo’s constructed the suitable framework. Collectively, we’re excited to create and commercialize a robust set of autonomous options for the huge and vital trucking market.”