First-of-Its-Kind Independent Audit Recognizes Aurora's High Commitment to Self-Driving Safety

Business Wire 30-Jul-2024 12:00 PM

• TÜV SÜD audited Aurora's Safety Management System (SMS), which governs how the organization manages safety in self-driving product development and operations.
• This audit is the first of its kind for the US autonomous vehicle industry, and Aurora's performance sets a high bar for companies seeking to deploy driverless vehicles.

TÜV SÜD, a global leader in testing, inspection, and certification, recently completed a Safety Management System audit of Aurora (NASDAQ:AUR), the autonomous trucking company. The audit concluded that the company is proactive, responsible, and thorough in its safety approach.

Throughout the auditing process, TÜV SÜD reviewed policies and programs that directly impact the safety of Aurora's product and organization. This included evaluating how Aurora's Safety Management System helps the organization make safety-related decisions, address safety concerns, measure organizational safety, and prioritize the expertise of safety leadership. This was done by inspecting Aurora's alignment with the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium Report for Adapting a Safety Management System for Automated Driving System SAE Level 4 and 5 Testing and Evaluation (AVSC00007) – an important standard for the safety-critical autonomous vehicle industry in the United States.

Importantly, the audit included in-depth interviews with Aurora team members, including the CEO as Aurora's Accountable Executive, that evaluated safety expertise, adherence to core safety programs, prioritization of safety policies, and management of a strong safety culture.

The audit's conclusions specifically highlighted the expertise of Aurora's Safety Team, emphasizing the value of Aurora establishing its safety organization as an independent function that regularly reviews program effectiveness by its established Safety Review Board, and also seeks input from outside the company. This includes acting upon feedback from third-party safety experts, like Aurora's Safety Advisory Board.

"Aurora has consistently implemented the new industry best practice AVSC00007," shared Bijoy Bhaskaran, Director of Mobility Division at TÜV SÜD America Inc. "Aurora adapted best practices from other safety-critical industries to implement safety processes throughout their organization. This is a first-of-its-kind Safety Management System audit for the US autonomous vehicle industry."

Following the audit, Aurora Chief Safety Officer Nat Beuse stated: "Since Aurora's founding, we've put safety policies and programs at the center of how we develop our self-driving product. TÜV SÜD was diligent in their audit, and we're proud that their independent assessment validated the strength of our safety approach."

TÜV SÜD's audit was important for Aurora as the company continues to prepare to deploy driverless trucks at scale, helping the organization understand the robustness of its safety policies and programs. For more information about safety at Aurora, visit www.aurora.tech/safety.

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 Continental, FedEx, Hirschbach, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner. To learn more, visit www.aurora.tech.

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