In addition to its headquarters in Pittsburgh and Mountain View, the company also has offices in San Francisco, Bozeman, Montana, and Texas.

[2][3][9] Previously, Urmson was a member of Carnegie Mellon's Red Team, which competed in DARPA's Grand Challenges for autonomous vehicles.

[2][5][4] In January 2018, Aurora signed deals with Volkswagen and Hyundai to develop self-driving software for commercial vehicles.

[18] In May 2019, Aurora acquired Blackmore, a Bozeman, Montana-based company focusing on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) lidar.

[19][20][21] In June 2019, Aurora announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to develop self-driving technology in commercial vans.

[24] Aurora expanded its operations to Texas in June 2020, bringing a fleet of test vehicles into the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

[46] In March 2023, Aurora had 28 Class 8 self-driving trucks that run on public roads and are used with safety backup drivers.

[52][53][54] The Aurora Driver's software uses data from its sensors to devise a safe path through a given route, while its computer powers these components and integrates them with the vehicle.

[56] Conventional lidar uses pulses of light to acquire information about objects surrounding the sensor, including distance and velocity.

[57] In contrast, FMCW lidar uses a low-powered continuous beam of light, enabling faster acquisition of distance, velocity, and acceleration of surrounding objects, but often requires bulky mirrors and rangefinders.