The Volvo VNL Autonomous – Proving the Way Forward

Volvo Autonomous Solutions (V.A.S.) unveiled Volvo’s first-ever production
ready autonomous truck at the ACT Expo in Las Vegas. The Volvo VNL
Autonomous brings together Volvo’s commercial vehicle expertise with
industry-leading autonomous driving technology from Aurora Innovation
(NASDAQ: AUR). The result is a purpose-designed and purpose-built autonomous
truck that will be the key enabler to increasing freight capacity across the
United States.

“We are at the forefront of a new way to transport goods, complementing and
enhancing transportation capacity, and thereby enabling trade and societal
growth,” states Nils Jaeger, President of Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “This
truck is the first of our standardized global autonomous technology
platform, which will enable us to introduce additional models in the future,
bringing autonomy to all Volvo Group truck brands, and to other geographies
and use cases.”

The platform-based design approach will enable Volvo to use its in-house
developed virtual driver for trucks and machines working within confined
applications and partner virtual driving technologies for on-highway
trucking applications.

Guided by Safety with Robust Redundancy

Volvo Autonomous Solutions is dedicated to tackling the transportation
industry’s capacity constraints through safe, sustainable, and efficient
autonomous transport solutions. True to the Volvo DNA, every design and
engineering decision for the new Volvo VNL Autonomous has been made with
safety in mind. The Volvo VNL Autonomous therefore has redundant steering,
braking, communication, computation, power management, energy storage and
vehicle motion management systems.

“Our platform engineering approach prioritizes safety by incorporating
high-assurance redundancy systems designed to mitigate potential emergency
situations,” said Shahrukh Kazmi, Chief Product Officer at Volvo Autonomous
Solutions. “We built the Volvo VNL Autonomous from the ground up,
integrating these redundancy systems to ensure that every safety-critical
component is intentionally duplicated, thereby significantly enhancing both
safety and reliability.”

Cutting-edge Technology and Purpose-built for Integration

Volvo’s and Aurora’s world-class engineering teams have worked closely
together to integrate the Volvo VNL Autonomous and the Aurora Driver, an SAE
L4 autonomous driving system. The Aurora Driver consists of powerful AI
software, dual computers, proprietary lidar that can detect objects more
than 400 meters away, high-resolution cameras, imaging radar, and additional
sensors, enabling the Volvo VNL Autonomous to safely navigate the world
around it.

“Powered by the Aurora Driver, the new Volvo VNL Autonomous is the
realization of our shared vision,” said Sterling Anderson, Co-founder and
Chief Product Officer at Aurora. “This truck combines Aurora’s
industry-leading self-driving technology with Volvo’s best-in-class truck,
designed specifically for autonomy, making it a must-have for any transport
provider that wants to strengthen and grow their business.”

The Aurora Driver has been extensively trained and tested in Aurora’s
sophisticated virtual suite where it’s driven billions of miles. It also has
driven 1.5 million commercial miles on public roads, where it deftly
navigates end-to-end trucking routes traversing highways, rural roadways,
and surface streets day and night and through good and bad weather.

Purpose-built for Commercial Scale

Building a viable autonomous truck at scale requires extensive manufacturing
experience and a proven procurement eco-system. The Volvo VNL Autonomous
will be assembled at Volvo’s flagship New River Valley (NRV) plant in
Dublin, Virginia. As the largest Volvo Trucks plant in the world, NRV’s
decades of high-volume production experience combined with stringent
automotive quality processes will result in the capability to produce the
Volvo VNL Autonomous at industry demand.

Looking Ahead: Customer Adoption and Societal Impact

“The Volvo VNL Autonomous, powered by the Aurora Driver, offers a fully
integrated autonomous solution in the Hub-to-Hub segment,” says Sasko
Cuklev, Head of On-Road Solutions at Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “Our
approach reduces complexity for our customers while allowing them to
experience the benefits of an autonomous solution with peace of mind by
ensuring efficiency, safety and reliability.”

Volvo is a company built around people and the mission of Volvo Autonomous
Solutions is no different. Improving transportation not just for customers,
but society at large, is at the core of the work done by Volvo Autonomous
Solutions. The United States has seen driver shortages for decades and that
gap is only expected to increase. The adoption of autonomy aims at aiding
the transportation sector with additional freight capacity while allowing
drivers to focus on routes better suited to work-life balance. The
introduction of the new Volvo VNL Autonomous marks a milestone in the
implementation of autonomous transport and the societal benefits of
autonomy.

About Volvo Autonomous Solutions

The autonomous transport solution offered by Volvo Autonomous Solutions is
based on Transport as a Service (TaaS) and includes a vehicle purpose-built
for autonomous driving, a virtual driver, required infrastructure,
operations and uptime support as well as a cloud solution that controls the
transport system and manages logistics flows. The solutions developed by
Volvo Autonomous Solutions are tailor-made for each customer’s needs and
intended to make their operations safer, productive and sustainable.

About Aurora

Aurora (Nasdaq: AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology
safely, quickly, and broadly to make transportation safer, increasingly
accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. The Aurora
Driver is a self-driving system designed to operate multiple vehicle types,
from freight-hauling trucks to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and
underpins Aurora’s driver-as-a-service products for trucking and
ride-hailing. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the
transportation ecosystem, including Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous
Solutions, Continental, FedEx, Hirschbach, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber,
Uber Freight, and Werner. To learn more, visit aurora.tech.