Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Aurora Partners With McLane For Driverless Trucks To Officially Enter The Freight Mainstream In Texas

The future of freight officially moved from testing grounds to real highways this week.

Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation announced a commercial partnership with McLane Company that will put fully autonomous trucks on one of America’s busiest freight corridors: the route between Dallas and Houston.

And yes—these trucks are operating without a human driver behind the wheel.

According to reports released on May 6, Aurora’s trucks will now haul restaurant and retail supplies across Texas using the company’s autonomous driving platform. While a “human observer” may still ride in the cab under agreements with truck manufacturer Paccar, that person does not control the vehicle. The truck drives itself.

From Pilot Program to Real Business

This didn’t happen overnight.

Aurora and McLane began testing autonomous freight operations in 2023 with safety operators onboard. Since then, Aurora says its trucks have logged over 280,000 autonomous miles and delivered more than 1,400 loads with 100% on-time performance—strong enough for McLane to approve full driverless operations.

What began as a pilot is now running seven days a week between Dallas and Houston.

How It Actually Works

Aurora’s system focuses on the “middle mile”—the long highway portion of the journey.

The autonomous truck handles interstate travel, then at terminals near Dallas and Houston, a McLane driver takes over for local deliveries to restaurants, convenience stores, and other customers.

It’s a hybrid model: AI for the long haul, humans for the final mile.

Why This Matters

Last year, Aurora became the first company to launch commercial driverless heavy-duty trucks on public U.S. roads. Now, this McLane deal shows the business model is moving beyond experimentation and into revenue-generating logistics.

Aurora says it plans to expand these autonomous routes across the U.S. Sun Belt before the end of 2026.

That means Texas may just be the beginning.

The Bigger Question

If autonomous trucks can safely move freight 24/7 without fatigue, mandatory breaks, or driver shortages…

What happens to the future of long-haul trucking?

For now, Aurora’s answer seems clear:

Not replacing humans entirely—yet.

But the wheel is no longer in human hands.

America’s 48-Hour Mission That Shook the World

In just two days, the United States launched one of its boldest military operations of the year… and then suddenly hit pause.

It began with a mission code-named Project Freedom.

The objective sounded straightforward: escort trapped commercial vessels through the volatile waters of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most strategically important shipping lanes on Earth. Nearly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through this narrow corridor. When tensions in the region intensified, hundreds of ships—and thousands of sailors—were caught in limbo.

Then came the American response.

U.S. military assets moved into position. Escort operations began. Markets reacted immediately. Oil prices climbed. Headlines exploded across the globe.

For a brief moment, it looked like Washington was preparing for a major long-term maritime campaign.

Then—less than 48 hours later—everything changed.

President Donald Trump announced that Project Freedom would be paused, citing “progress in negotiations.” The sudden reversal stunned analysts, allies, and investors alike. Was this a tactical pause… or the beginning of a larger diplomatic breakthrough?

Meanwhile, the economic shockwaves continued.

Gasoline prices in parts of America surged to their highest levels since 2022. Shipping insurers raised premiums. Traders on NYSE watched every development with nervous intensity.

But beyond markets and military strategy lies a deeper question:

Is America showing strength… or uncertainty?

With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, every decision in Washington now carries global consequences.

And if history has taught us anything—

Sometimes the missions that last only 48 hours leave the biggest mark.

Friday, September 17, 2021

Apple and Google bow to Russian pressure

Friday, September 17, 2021 • By Alex Wilhelm

Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Friday, September 17th! What a week, ya'll. It is now just days before Disrupt, which means the TechCrunch hive is buzzing. I'll leave it by noting that Reid Hoffman is coming, which is going to be a treat. See you next week! — Alex

Image Credits: David Yellen

The TechCrunch Top 3

Profits > Ethics: Apple and Google have removed a "tactical voting app created by the organization of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny" from their marketplaces, we reported. TechCrunch notes that "the Russian state [is] amping up the pressure on foreign tech giants ahead of federal elections." So much for standing up for democracy, or whatever.
Are software valuations stabilizing? After a simply incredible run, the value of software revenues may have reached a plateau. A very high plateau, mind, but still a resting point. This is not bad news for SaaS companies, which are still valued at historically elevated levels.
Apple "actively monitoring" legal challenges to Texas abortion law: While some tech companies are making their displeasure at the new Texas reproductive care bill very public, Apple is taking a slightly slower, lower-profile approach to the matter. But it's still good to see an American tech company nearly take a stand on a moral matter. It's better than whatever is actually less than that. A little.

Why Embedded Analytics Is the Future of Data Utilization

4 ways to leverage ROAS to triple lead generation

In school, it’s highly unethical to copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. In business, however, it’s encouraged.

Xiaoyun TU, global director of demand generation at Brightpearl, wrote a comprehensive guide that describes how a better understanding of return on advertising spend (ROAS) can triple your company’s lead generation.

“A ‘good’ ROAS score is different for each company and campaign,” she says.

“If your figure isn't where you'd like it to be, you can leverage ROAS data to create targeted campaigns and personalized experiences.”

4 ways to leverage ROAS to triple lead generation image

Image Credits: joshblake / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc.

Elon praises Chinese automakers: As Beijing looks to consolidate its national EV industry, Tesla's CEO took to a scripted set of comments to praise his Chinese rivals. If you want to understand how different the business climate is between China and America, contrast the mercurial executive's message to China, and then read his tweets.
Here's a headline for you: "Facebook knows Instagram harms teens. Now, its plan to open the app to kids looks worse than ever." Preach, Taylor. If you are not caught up on the Facebook beat, read the Wall Street Journal's latest series of articles. They are more than revelatory.

Image Credits: Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images

TechCrunch Experts: Growth Marketing

With the release of iOS 15 around the corner, we spoke to Movable Ink CEO Vivek Sharma and got his take on what marketers can do to prepare, "Marketers should plan for more DIY metrics as iOS 15 nears."

TechCrunch wants you to recommend growth marketers who have expertise in SEO, social, content writing and more! If you're a growth marketer, pass this survey along to your clients; we'd like to hear about why they loved working with you.

TechCrunch Experts: Growth Marketing image

Image Credits: FeelPic

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Last chance to be our guest at Disrupt next week

Last Chance to join us at Disrupt as our guest

We're just a few days away before we kick off our annual startup conference, TechCrunch Disrupt where we'll host 3-days of engaging and interactive panels, roundtables and networking sessions with thousands of the most engaged members of the startup community.

As a TechCrunch newsletter subscriber, we're releasing 100 free, full-access passes so you can join us next week. But you'll have to act fast to take advantage of this offer because once they're gone, they're gone!

Here's just a taste of what you'll experience at the event:

Hear how startup founders from Forward, Carbon Health and Cityblock Health decided to tackle the behemoth, backward industry of healthcare, as well as talk through their plans to democratize access and digitize the industry.

How do you find signal from all the noise and build a compelling product roadmap that properly calibrates every tradeoff? Jean-Denis Greze of Plaid, Stephanie Mencarelli of InVision, and Pete Thompson of eBay offer their perspectives as product leaders on how to keep a bold perspective in product while getting the details right.

The secret to revenue growth is great sales, but the definition of "great" and "sales" has changed dramatically post-COVID. Join Abi Williams of Udemy, Pablo Viguera of Belvo, and Kate Taylor of Notion as we discuss the best practices for handling sales in a re-energized 2021 economy.