Aurora, the Silicon Valley self-driving startup founded by former Tesla, Uber and Google executives, has released what it says is the industry’s first tool for evaluating whether and when autonomous trucks and cars are safe to deploy on public roads without a human behind the wheel.

“We think this is the only way you can get to a safe, commercializable product,” said co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson of Aurora’s new Safety Case Framework.

Aurora, working with partners PACCAR (PCAR.O) and Volvo Group (VOLVb.ST), aims to put its self-driving system in commercial service in heavy-duty trucks in late 2023.

The release of the safety tool, which provides a methodology and metrics for gauging progress from development to deployment, comes days after the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation of Tesla’s (TSLA.O) Autopilot driving assistance feature following a series of crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles.
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