Amazon invests in self-driving company Aurora

Amazon has invested more than $530 million in the autonomous driving start-up Aurora. Other investors include the investment division of Shell.

Aurora was founded by CEO Chris Urmson, the former CTO of self-driving cars at Google parent company Alphabet. Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson led the design and launch of the Tesla Model X and Drew Bagnell, Aurora’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, was one of the founders of Uber’s Advanced Technology Centre.

Aurora does not manufacture its own vehicles but works with car manufacturers to develop self-driving technology. It competes with companies like Alphabet’s Waymo and Argo AI (Ford) and Cruise (GM).

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is building autonomous vehicle technology. The company also set up a partnership with Toyota to find ways to use self-driving cars for deliveries. Earlier this week, CNBC reported that Amazon is using self-driving trucks developed by Embark.

Image: Aurora-equipped vehicle (source: Aurora)