• Volvo will begin hauling freight to customer facilities in Oklahoma City with the Volvo VNL Autonomous equipped with the Aurora Driver technology.
• Aurora is among the first to deploy the Volvo VNL Autonomous across multiple U.S. states.
• The announcement comes after Aurora signed an MoU last week to deploy 500 trucks on the Sun Belt route for cold freight hauler Hirschbach by 2027.

Shares of Aurora Innovation, Inc. (AUR) are up in Tuesday’s premarket trading after the company and Volvo Autonomous Solutions announced they will establish a new 200-mile, five-day-a-week driverless trucking route between Dallas and Oklahoma City.

The deal follows the company’s Hirschbach agreement from last week, in which Aurora is helping the cold freight carrier achieve its goal of covering 500 million miles on longer, less desirable routes and deploy 500 trucks on the road by 2027.

At the time of writing, AUR shares were trading 1.5% higher, and if session gains hold throughout the day, the stock would record a five-day winning streak.

AUR Doubles Down On Sun Belt Strategy

The new route between Dallas and Oklahoma City builds on the driverless truck tech company’s strategy to deploy its solutions in the U.S. Sun Belt, a high-volume trucking corridor.

Autonomous transportation is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., as seen in the ongoing rise of “self-driving” robotaxis, and its use case for moving freight is growing, as it reduces operating costs and saves haulers time.

“Expanding our operations into Oklahoma City and adding customer endpoints is an important step for scaling autonomous transport,” said Sasko Cuklev, Head of On-Road Solutions at Volvo Autonomous Solutions.

Aurora, Volvo’s top autonomy partner, is among the first to deploy the Volvo VNL Autonomous across multiple U.S. states. The companies are now in the final validation phase for driverless operations.

AUR Stock: How Did Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment about AUR remained ‘extremely bullish,’ while messaging volumes more than sixfold over the last 24 hours.

One user on the platform calls Volvo's expansion news a “serious” move.

Another bullish investor news wrote, “WE'RE MOVING UP!!!! WE OWN THE ROAD!!!”

AUR has outperformed the benchmark S&P index so far this year.

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