AI NewsAurora’s Chris Urmson on why self-driving trucks are finally ready to scale

Aurora’s Chris Urmson on why self-driving trucks are finally ready to scale

4:02 AM IST · May 8, 2026

Self-driving has been “almost here” for over a decade. But somewhere between DARPA challenges and a handful of driverless trucks hauling freight between Dallas and Houston, Aurora co-founder and CEOChris Urmson’s story changed. The self-driving truck company started commercial driverless operations last April and is now scaling from a handful of trucks to hundreds this year. On this episode of TechCrunch’sEquitypodcast, we’re bringing you a conversation Rebecca Bellan had with Urmson at theHumanXconference in San Francisco. The pair dug into the long road from lab to highway and how physical AI differs from the LLM boom everyone else is chasing. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Subscribe to Equity onYouTube,Apple Podcasts,Overcast,Spotifyand all the casts. You also can follow Equity onXandThreads, at @EquityPod.