Aurora Innovation, the autonomous trucking technology developer, has announced a significant expansion of its commercial operations, including surpassing 20,000 driverless miles at the end of June, recently growing its driverless fleet to three trucks, beginning driverless commercial operations at night, and opening a new Phoenix terminal.

CCJ Digital reports that Aurora has been operating “driverless” autonomous hauls between Dallas and Houston, though with a human operator in the front seat, and is now expanding operations on that lane to include nighttime driving. The company said this “more than doubles truck utilization potential, significantly shortening delivery times on long-haul routes and creating a path to profitability for autonomous trucking.”

Powered by Aurora’s proprietary, long-range FirstLight Lidar, Aurora said its autonomous Aurora Driver can detect objects in the dark more than 450 meters away, identifying pedestrians, vehicles, and debris up to 11 seconds sooner than a human driver.

“Efficiency, uptime, and reliability are important for our customers, and Aurora is showing we can deliver,” said Chris Urmson (pictured), co-founder and CEO of Aurora. “Just three months after launch, we’re running driverless operations day and night, and we’ve expanded our terminal network to Phoenix. Our rapid progress is beginning to unlock the full value of self-driving trucks for our customers, which has the potential to transform the trillion-dollar trucking industry.”

(Pics: Courtesy of Aurora)