The stock price of Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ: AUR), a self-driving vehicle technology company, saw a nearly 30% jump on Tuesday, January 7, after the company announced a deal with Nvidia and Continental to deploy driverless trucks at a bigger scale. Nvidia’s DRIVE Thor SoC and DriveOS will be the foundation of the Aurora Driver, an SAE L4 autonomous driving system that Continental plans to mass-produce in 2027. [1] Also see, Buy, Sell, Or Hold Lyft Stock?
The demand for self-driving technology has been gaining traction lately. Google’s Waymo is already seeing 150,000 weekly paid rides. Aurora is already in partnership with Volvo and PACCAR to develop, test, and commercialize autonomous trucks. The Aurora systems can be integrated into different vehicle platforms. With a mass-production of self-driving trucks, the issues of driver shortage and freight efficiency will likely be addressed in the long run. Aurora, with its self-driving technology for trucks, stands to benefit from this.
Aurora represents a convergence of autonomous vehicle expertise through its three co-founders: Chris Urmson, who previously led Google’s self-driving initiative (later renamed Waymo) as CTO; Sterling Anderson, who headed Tesla’s Autopilot program; and Drew Bagnell, who directed Uber’s autonomy and perception efforts. This combination brought together leadership experience from three pioneering companies in the self-driving space.
While Aurora’s self-driving technology shows significant promise, it remains in a testing stage. Aurora currently has a limited revenue stream, primarily from collaboration with different companies. However, it expects to earn revenue on a fee per mile basis from its self-driving technology. The company’s operating losses have been in the range of $730 million to $850 million in the last few years. As an investor, the bet will be on the future potential of autonomous driving and Aurora’s place in it. Also, for a look at cryptocurrency, see What’s The Next Trigger For XRP Price?
AUR stock is up 91% since the beginning of 2024, outperforming the broader markets, with the S&P500 index rising 25%. Looking at its past performance, the changes in AUR stock over the last four-year period have been far from consistent, with annual returns being considerably more volatile than the S&P 500. Returns for the stock were 13% in 2021, -89% in 2022, 261% in 2023, and 44% in 2024. While AUR stock has seen mixed growth over recent years, the Trefis High Quality Portfolio, with a collection of 30 stocks, has provided better returns with less risk versus the benchmark S&P 500 index over the last four year period; less of a roller-coaster ride as evident in HQ Portfolio performance metrics.
While AUR stock is trending higher, it is helpful to see how some of its peers, including Google, fare on metrics that matter. You will find other valuable comparisons for companies across industries at Peer Comparisons.
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