DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2026--
Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR) and McLane Company, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) subsidiary, today announced an agreement to begin driverless hauls in Texas with the Aurora Driver, an SAE L4 self-driving system that is first being deployed in long-haul trucking. The partnership enables McLane – one of the largest distributors in America, serving chain restaurants, convenience stores, and mass merchants – to move supplies and perishable food more efficiently for America’s most beloved restaurant brands with autonomous trucks.
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“The business of moving food is essential to our economy and our way of life. With a 134-year legacy, McLane is deeply woven into the American distribution industry,” said Ossa Fisher, president at Aurora. “We’re excited to enter the next chapter with McLane and transform the American food supply chain with autonomous trucks. Our collective momentum in logistics is palpable."
Proven Safety and Reliability
The companies began their supervised autonomy pilot in 2023. Since then, the Aurora Driver logged over 280,000 autonomous miles in Texas and delivered 1,400 loads for McLane, helping it serve restaurant customers across the state.
Based on Aurora's record of safely delivering goods for McLane with 100% on-time performance, McLane approved the transition to driverless operations between Dallas and Houston. Aurora plans to expand to new routes between McLane distribution centers across the U.S. Sun Belt by the end of the year, with plans to serve additional McLane business in the future.
“We’ve been thoroughly impressed with Aurora’s technology, exceptional safety performance and commitment to operational excellence,” said Susan Adzick, president of McLane Restaurant. “Autonomous technology helps us drive greater efficiency across the supply chain, while our drivers remain focused on the critical last mile—and continuing to serve as the face of our company to customers.”
Strengthening the Supply Chain with Autonomy
During the pilot, Aurora met the demands of McLane’s rigorous schedule, expanding to two round-trips daily between Dallas and Houston, seven days a week. The workflow utilizes a hybrid model: the Aurora Driver manages the long-haul ‘middle mile,’ while McLane drivers handle local deliveries to customer locations. This hybrid model with autonomous and human drivers will continue as the companies deepen their work together.
Autonomous trucks moving refrigerated hauls 24/7 offer scalable, reliable capacity that can flex with demand—bringing greater efficiency to operations and helping address ongoing labor constraints. By supporting more consistent transit schedules and dependable middle-mile coverage, the Aurora Driver helps keep freight moving smoothly.
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 product for trucking. Aurora is working with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem, including AUMOVIO, FedEx, Hirschbach, NVIDIA, PACCAR, Ryder, Schneider, Toyota, Uber, Uber Freight, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and Werner. To learn more, visit aurora.tech.
About McLane
Founded in 1894, McLane Company Inc. is one of the largest distributors in America, serving convenience stores, mass merchants, and chain restaurants. As an industry-leading partner to the biggest retail and restaurant businesses, McLane buys, sells, delivers, and serves the world’s most beloved brands. With headquarters in Temple, Texas, McLane has more than 80 distribution centers across the country, employs more than 25,000 teammates, and delivers to nearly every zip code in the US. McLane is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, those statements around our driverless operations and future financial and operating performance; our ability to meet customer demand, reduce costs and general expectations beyond that year; the safety benefits of our technology and product; our ability to achieve certain milestones around, and realize the potential benefits of, the development, manufacturing, scaling and commercialization of the Aurora Driver and related services, on the timeframe we expect or at all; our relationships with our partners and customers and anticipated benefits that they may derive from our product; and the anticipated impact of our product on the freight industry and economy. Statements in this press release about McLane’s intent to expand its partnership reflect current plans and discussions, and whether that intent is finalized and results in binding orders is subject to definitive documentation, which may not occur on the expected timeline, or at all. These statements are based on management’s current assumptions and are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, please see the risks and uncertainties identified under the heading “Risk Factors” section of Aurora Innovation, Inc.’s (“Aurora”) Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 11, 2026, and other documents filed by Aurora from time to time with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. All forward-looking statements reflect our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Aurora undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
After a successful pilot program with one of the largest private fleets in America, Aurora transitions to driverless commercial operations on select routes for McLane Company (Credit: Aurora)
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he takes stock of his Republican Party's midterm drubbing, President Donald Trump now faces the difficult question of what to do about his unpopular 8-month-old war against Iran.
For weeks, Trump has threatened to return to a full-scale bombardment of Iran once the U.S. elections were in the rearview mirror if Tehran did not come to a settlement under terms acceptable to him.
In his first comments on Wednesday after Democrats' resounding election victory — a wave powered in part by the American electorate's dissatisfaction with the war — Trump largely agreed with Vice President JD Vance, who publicly ruminated on the war being a catastrophe for Republicans.
“It’s largely true because it drove gasoline up a little bit,” Trump said. Still, he doubled down on his decision to launch the conflict despite its big political cost. “At the same time, if I had to do it again, I'd do it again," he said.
The strikes, and counterstrikes, have caused tens of billions of dollars of damage in the region. And the conflict has reached into the pocketbook of families around the globe with elevated gas prices and rising costs in just about every sector.
Now, as Trump ponders his next move, the stakes couldn't be higher for Iran, the Middle East and the global economy writ large.
While oil is flowing again from the Strait of Hormuz with the help of U.S. Navy escorts for international tankers, the conflict has spread to the Red Sea with Iran-backed Houthi rebels and a Saudi Arabia -led coalition fighting it out.
The situation in the Red Sea remains particularly volatile. The Houthis are attacking Yemeni civilians and Saudi infrastructure, and are looking to bolster ties with militant groups across the Horn of Africa.
The attacks by the Yemen-based Houthis on areas controlled by the internationally recognized Yemeni government have also worsened a growing humanitarian crisis.
The threat that the region faces from Iran and its proxy groups, noted a senior Yemeni government official, “did not change overnight” with the U.S. elections, urging Washington to avoid hasty decisions. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the basis of anonymity.
“There’s reason to suspect that Trump may feel less restrained given that the political damage is done,” said Brian Haggerty, a former senior analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency who focused on Middle East security issues. “At the same time, the strategic calculus or the strategic logic of what you hope to achieve through an escalation of strikes against Iran is no different today than it was a week ago or a month ago.”
Haggerty, who now works with Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank, said Trump could choose to maintain something close to the current posture, with the U.S. military carrying out what it calls “defensive strikes” while continuing its naval blockade to restrict the flow of Iranian oil to the global market.
Another option is striking Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a facility linked to its nuclear program that is buried deep underground in central Iran, said David Schenker, who served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in Trump’s first term. Trump has repeatedly suggested he was considering targeting the site.
Schenker said Trump could then walk away and contend he had done sufficient damage to Iran's nuclear program — and perhaps try to pursue a “fig leaf agreement” that restores freedom of navigation to the Strait of Hormuz, offers Iran some degree of sanctions relief, and punts additional nuclear talks to the future.
Yet another option would be to follow up on threats Trump made earlier in the war to launch massive attacks on Iranian infrastructure. “The Iranians may believe the president is wounded and constrained by Congress, but the opposite can also be true,” Schenker said.
But such escalation would likely exacerbate the oil and energy price problem that many voters cited as a reason for supporting Democrats on Tuesday, Schenker said.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil tumbled below $95 on Wednesday after the election, touching its lowest level in two months, a signal that markets do not expect major strikes.
Iran, of course, also has a say, analysts note.
“Once you start a fistfight, you can stop throwing punches. That doesn’t mean the other combatant will stop throwing punches,” said Bradley Bowman, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “We can try to end the war, but what do we do if the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz?”
Middle East officials had been hanging on Trump’s every word in the weeks leading up to the U.S. elections, looking for clues on how the Republican leader was weighing his next steps.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed for renewed strikes on Iran during a call over the weekend with Trump, who would not commit to taking military action, according to a person who was briefed on it.
Three Middle Eastern government officials said on Wednesday that Trump and his administration had seemed to be signaling to Iran that its leverage would only diminish after the U.S. elections were over.
Administration officials had privately suggested in diplomatic channels that Trump might be more willing to restart strikes after Nov. 3 because he'd have little left to lose politically, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
After Tuesday’s electoral shellacking, there was lingering concern that Trump might be more emboldened to carry out full-scale or new limited strikes against Iran, the officials said.
A fourth official said the results of the election gave mediators a measure of optimism about finding a pathway to resolving the conflict.
Meanwhile, Vance appeared to more forcefully pin the electoral debacle on the Iran war than his boss Trump, who initially blamed the GOP's candidates for the big loss.
“The reason we lost,” Vance said of the midterm elections in a lengthy social media post, “is the war.”
Vance, a potential 2028 presidential contender, had been among the most skeptical inside the White House on the wisdom of launching the war but got on board with Trump's decision once he made it.
Several Democratic candidates who scored upsets on Tuesday noted voter discontent with the Iran war in their victory speeches.
“Wherever I went, I heard the same thing,” said Sen.-elect Josh Turek of Iowa. “They would say, Josh, I’m struggling just to keep food on the table, keep a roof above my head, pay my electric bill. And with this war in Iran, I’m struggling just to keep gas in my tank.”
About 6 in 10 voters said the U.S. made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in the United States.
Most of those voters dissatisfied with the Iran war backed the Democratic candidate in their local U.S. House race, but the survey suggested the Iran war was not the top issue for most voters.
Only about one-third of voters said the war in Iran was “crucial” to shaping how they voted for Congress. That was well below the roughly half who said that about the cost of living or government corruption.
Nearly all voters who backed the Democratic candidate in their local U.S. House race said going to war with Iran was the “wrong decision,” while roughly 8 in 10 voters who backed the Republican candidate said it was the “right decision.”
Meanwhile, about 6 in 10 voters nationally said they were “very concerned” about the cost of gasoline and diesel, the poll showed — and about two-thirds of that group voted for the Democratic candidate in their local U.S. House race.
But Trump, for his part, said even in hindsight he'd approach Iran exactly as he has.
“I can tell you that as far as that war is concerned I would have done nothing different," the president said.
Magdy reported from New York. AP writers Collin Binkley in Washington, Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, and Kathleen Foody in Chicago contributed reporting.
Vice President JD Vance arrives at a campaign rally at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Swanton, Ohio. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP)
President Donald Trump talks to reporters during a tour of White House Ballroom construction at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
