Aurora Innovation Partners with Frisco Police Department for Self-Driving Safety

By Leslie Keaveney, Senior Manager of Policy Engineering, Aurora Innovation

In December 2023, Aurora Innovation, an autonomous vehicle (AV) developer, partnered with the Frisco (Texas) Police Department (PD) to safely test emergency vehicle interactions with autonomous trucks along Aurora’s trucking route on I-45 in Texas.

On Dec. 19 and 20 of 2023, Ofc. Thomas Mrozinski pulled over a manually driven Aurora Class 8 truck multiple times between Palmer and Ennis on I-45. These planned pullovers helped Aurora collect data about emergency vehicle interactions, specifically in scenarios that autonomous vehicles do not regularly encounter during daily operations.

The Aurora trucks were driven manually by a commercially licensed vehicle operator, with the Aurora Driver, the vehicle’s automated driving system (ADS), running in the background to collect data about how the vehicle perceived and tracked Frisco PD’s vehicles. The Aurora Driver is equipped with a powerful computer, advanced camera, and radar and lidar sensors that create a near 360-degree view of what’s happening around the vehicle at all times.

These planned interactions with Frisco PD revealed valuable information to the ADS about law enforcement-initiated pullovers and driving behaviors. For example, these tests showed how the ADS tracks when emergency vehicles approach the AV to pull it over, when emergency vehicles leave pullover interactions and when emergency vehicles pass the AV. These interactions even included an emergency U-turn by the Frisco PD vehicle on a frontage road – a scenario rare even for human drivers to encounter.

Ofc. Mrozinski said, “Autonomous trucks are growing to be an important part of Texas’s economy and supply chain. At the Frisco Police Department, we are working with Aurora to help ensure these vehicles can conduct safe interactions with law enforcement and the communities in which they operate. We value Aurora’s transparency, openness and partnership in this process.”

Aurora is using the data collected to improve the Aurora Driver’s ability to detect and appropriately respond to emergency vehicles. Gary McCarthy, senior manager of first responder interaction at Aurora, said, “We are committed to working with our partners in law enforcement, fire service, emergency medical services and all those who serve as first responders to make sure our vehicles respond appropriately to emergencies. We’re grateful to Frisco PD and all of our first responder partners for helping us make the Aurora Driver as safe as it can be. We look forward to much more collaboration in the future.”

Aurora plans to begin driverless operations on I-45 in late 2024. As the company launches their autonomous trucking product and expands operations, it plans to continue working closely with first responders on autonomous vehicle safety.