Aurora’s autonomous trucks are now driving at night. The next big challenge is the rain.

Over the following year, Aurora Innovation CEO Chris Urmson wants to “unlock” the United States Sunbelt, a southern route where self-guiding trucks will carry goods for companies such as Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines.

Aurora, who launched the truck trading service that has not led to driving this spring, has already made some progress towards this goal. The company reported on Wednesday in the second quarter of the letter to shareholders that it now has three self-driving trucks that are commercially operated between Dallas and Houston and recorded over 20,000 miles without drivers by the end of June. Self-driving trucks have a human “observer” in the cabin, people who are not there to operate or interfere with, according to the company.

Aurora has also opened a terminal in Phoenix, another natural sign of his mission to Sunbelt Trucking-Route. Aurora is testing autonomous trucks on a 15 -hour route from its Fort Worth Terminal, Texas at Phoenix for customers, Hirschbach and Werner. The terminals of the company, which are within one to five miles from the highway, require the trucks without driver to handle exits and surface roads.

But it is the company’s ability to operate at night that helps it push it to new territory. Aurora said on Wednesday that it has validated the possibility for drivers without drivers to navigate highways and roads at night. This allows trucks to travel longer distances – and significantly beyond the limitation of federal services for traditional human drivers. Truck drivers are allowed to drive up to 11 hours within 14 hours. And they can’t do that day by day. Truck drivers are also required to take 10 hours breaks after completing a long distance route.

“The value is really in longer lengths – so 600 miles is definitely a good range, where it is at the border of what is possible for people,” Urmson told TechCrunch in a recent interview, adding that he is finally hoping that Aurora Trucks is carrying loads from Miami to California.

Urmson partially attributes Aurora’s privately owned Lidar, which can detect objects in the dark more than 450 meters away, for its ability to operate at night. Lidar can detect pedestrians, vehicles and debris up to 11 seconds earlier than a traditional driver, according to the company. Aurora has acquired two Lidar companies since it was founded in 2017.

Now, Urmson and other Aurora engineers are working to validate the capacity of trucks without a driver to operate in rain.

“By the end of the year, we expect to operate day, night and in rain – if you can’t drive through the rain, it is difficult to support these long businesses because it is raining somewhere,” he said.

Today, Aurora’s development fleet works in the rain and quite well that Urmson noted that most would wonder why the company does not allow its commercial trucks to do the same. Aurora has not completed the validation for it today and “so we are not willing to put this control sign next to him and let him go there,” he noted.

Today, the company is watching the weather on a trade route between Dallas and Houston. If they suddenly occur adverse weather conditions, such as the rain, these trucks are able to detect this and pull themselves off the road on their own, waiting to be rescued, Urmson said.

“This year is really about building a capacity toolbox so that vehicles can drive where they need it,” he said in a nod for the company’s focus on driving validation at night and in the rain.

Next year, Aurora will focus on the escalation of the road network in terms of distances and fleet. Aurora plans to have “dozens of drivers without drivers” operating on public roads by the end of the year and “hundreds” by the end of 2026.

All this, from the capacity of trucks without a driver to operate at night and in the rain to open more routes and one with a larger fleet, will be critical if Aurora ever hopes to reach profitability.

The revenue income gap today is high. Aurora reported revenue of $ 1 million in the second quarter and net loss of $ 201 million, According to its regulatory deposit.