Watch out, Tesla. One of your rivals, Aurora, just got serious money from retail behemoth Amazon.
Aurora isn’t just another self-driving tech company. Co-founder Sterling Anderson was the head of Tesla’s Autopilot program and was sued by his former employer back in 2017 for allegedly taking information and engineers with him to his new company. The case eventually settled and Aurora paid Tesla $100,000.
Now, Amazon is one of several backers in a $530 million funding round announced Thursday for Aurora, which is based in Palo Alto but maintains a big presence in Pittsburgh.
Aurora doesn’t build self-driving cars. It provides software for partners, including Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Chinese carmaker Byton — which promises vehicles capable of Level 4 autonomy by 2021. Last year Aurora secured the first state permit to test its vehicles throughout Pennsylvania, beating out Uber. Read more…
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