SAN FRANCISCO — Toyota Motor Corp. and Aurora Innovation Inc., a U.S. developer of automated driving programs, have began testing autonomous ride-hailing fleet in Texas, with two security operators and no passenger on board, Aurora mentioned on Tuesday.

Toyota’s Sienna minivans, retrofitted with Aurora’s self-driving system, will likely be examined on highways and suburban streets within the Dallas-Fort-Value space, with the operation together with journeys enroute to an airport. Toyota’s North American headquarters is in close by Plano, Texas.

Autonomous automobile startups are beneath stress to generate significant income from billions of {dollars} of engineering funding, however scaling up the fleet is a problem as technological hurdles stay.

“The route showcases Aurora’s capacity to soundly function at freeway speeds, a key technical differentiator that permits it to prioritize widespread and profitable rides,” the U.S. firm mentioned in a press release.

Aurora’s rival Waymo prices passengers of its driverless minivans for rides in restricted suburban areas in Phoenix, and airport pickups should not accessible.

Waymo mentioned on Monday it is able to deploy driverless automobiles within the densely populated San Francisco metropolis, with out giving a timeframe for the launch.

Aurora, led by Chris Urmson, a former head of Google’s self-driving automotive venture that has since develop into Waymo, mentioned it plans to proceed including automobiles to the fleet in preparation for business launch on ride-hailing networks similar to Uber.

Aurora purchased Uber’s autonomous automobile unit ATGin 2020 whereas the ride-hailing big had acquired a 26 p.c possession curiosity in Aurora.