Tech
Aurora’s driverless trucks can now travel farther distances faster than human drivers
Aurora’s self-driving trucks can now travel nonstop on a 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix — exceeding what a human driver can legally accomplish.
The distance, and the time it takes to travel it, offers up positive financial implications for Aurora — and any other company hoping to commercialize self-driving semitrucks.
It takes Aurora about 15 hours to carry freight in its driverless trucks on the 1,000-mile journey, according to the company. Human truck drivers take much longer to complete the same distance due to federal regulations that limit how long they can be behind the wheel. For instance, truck drivers must stop for a 30-minute break after eight hours and can operate a semitruck for a maximum of 11 hours at a time, according to federal regulations. Once drivers hit that threshold, they cannot get behind the wheel for another 10 hours.
“This represents more than a technological achievement,” Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson said during the company’s earnings call Wednesday afternoon. “It is the dawn of a superhuman future for freight.”
It also offers compelling economics to its customers, which includes Uber Freight, Werner, FedEx, and Schneider. The company said that eventually it can cut transit times nearly in half, a stat that has won over companies like Hirschbach, an early customer on the Fort Worth-to-Phoenix route.
Aurora said in a letter to shareholders that it is poised to expand across the Sun Belt of the United States. Today, the company operates driverless trucks — some with a human observer still in the cab — on routes between Dallas and Houston, Fort Worth and El Paso, El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Laredo and Dallas.
The expansion has helped Aurora transition from a developer of autonomous trucks to a commercial operator who is earning money on its driverless routes.
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Aurora has brought in revenue since April 2025 when it first deployed driverless, heavy-duty trucks for commercial use on public roads. Aurora reported $1 million in the fourth quarter and $3 million for the year, according to a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company’s CFO, David Maday, said total year adjusted revenue, which includes money earned through pilot programs early last year, was $4 million.
That’s a tiny figure, especially when compared to its expenses. Aurora reported a net income loss of $816 million in 2025, up 9% from the year before as it focuses on scaling its operations. Still, it shows measurable progress from 2024, when it didn’t recognize any revenue.
Revenue is projected to continue as the company adds more trucks and driverless routes to its network. Today, the company has 30 trucks in the fleet, 10 of which are operating driverlessly. That fleet is expected to grow to more than 200 trucks by the end of the year. Urmson said the company’s trucks have racked up 250,000 driverless miles as of January 2026 with a perfect safety record.
In the second quarter, Aurora plans to deploy a fleet of driverless International Motors LT trucks, which will not have a human observer on board. Aurora’s driverless operations that use Paccar trucks currently have a human safety observer in the cab as requested by the truck manufacturer.
Urmson took a bullish view of Aurora’s future, buoyed by advancements in its self-driving software, an impending second-generation hardware kit that will lower costs, and expansion of its driverless routes. The expansion of its driverless trucking routes has been propelled by a new software release, its fourth since launching commercial service in April 2025.
The first release validated initial driverless operations between Dallas and Houston, the second validated operations at night, and the third validated El Paso, according to Aurora. The company said this latest software release will give its self-driving system the capabilities to navigate the diverse geography and climate of the southern United States.
“Just as the last two years brought robotaxis into the mainstream, we expect 2026 to mark the inflection point where the market recognizes that self-driving trucks have arrived and are quickly becoming a permanent fixture in our transportation landscape,” Urmson said on the company’s earnings call. “If you’re in the Sun Belt in 2026, you won’t just read about the Aurora driver. You’ll see it every day.”
Aurora currently operates driverless routes through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and has future driverless operations planned for Nevada, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, the company said.
Tech
Roku to launch streaming bundles as part of its efforts to continue growing its profitability
Roku shared its fourth-quarter earnings for 2025 this week, as well as some exciting plans in the pipeline. The company is rolling out new streaming bundles, expanding its $3 subscription service, Howdy, to more platforms, and partnering with more premium streaming services following the successful addition of HBO Max.
Launching bundles in 2026 is a smart move, as it could attract more viewers looking for enticing deals amid rising subscription prices. Many streaming platforms have been increasing their rates recently, and Roku aims to appeal to cost-conscious consumers. The positive impact of HBO Max on Roku’s premium subscriptions has encouraged the company to continue this strategy by adding more top-tier partners, which is likely to drive growth going forward.
Additionally, Roku launched its ad-free subscription streaming service, Howdy, last year and plans to expand its availability beyond the Roku platform. While specific details remain undisclosed, Roku CEO Anthony Wood stated at CES last month that the goal is to distribute Howdy widely, saying, “We want to distribute it everywhere.”
Other highlights include Roku users streaming 145.6 billion hours of video in 2025, marking a 15% increase from 2024. The company is also nearing the milestone of 100 million streaming households, though it has decided to report this figure less frequently.
Financially, Roku delivered an impressive quarter, posting net income of $80.5 million, a rebound from a $35.5 million loss in the same period last year. Total revenue for Q4 2025 reached $1.4 billion, representing a 16% year-over-year increase.
Looking ahead, Roku is optimistic, projecting total net revenue of $5.5 billion and gross profit of $2.4 billion.
“In 2023, our priority was to rightsize our cost structure and reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven in 2024, and we achieved that goal a full year ahead of schedule,” Wood told investors during the call yesterday afternoon. “Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we are confident in our ability to sustain double-digit platform revenue growth while continuing to grow profitability.”
Tech
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads mocking AI with ads helped push Claude’s app into the top 10
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads — which feature darkly comedic scenarios of people seeking advice from chatbots, only to be steered to “cougar” dating sites and height-boosting insoles — have been paying off. In the days since, Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude has climbed from No. 41 on the U.S. App Store to become a top 10 app. As of Friday, Claude sits at No. 7 — its highest rank to date — suggesting its “no ads” pitch resonates strongly with users.
According to new data from market intelligence provider Appfigures, Claude’s U.S. downloads across both iOS and Android totaled an estimated 148,000 from Sunday through Tuesday — the most recent data available. That’s a 32% increase from the preceding three days, Thursday through Saturday, where downloads totaled approximately 112,000.
Claude’s daily average number of downloads from Sunday through Tuesday was 49,200, up 32% from the usual Sunday through Tuesday average of 37,400 per day.
The numbers suggest that Anthropic’s Super Bowl commercials, combined with Anthropic’s recent release of its new Opus 4.6 model, worked to drive attention to Claude’s app and its key differentiator from ChatGPT. The latter rolled out ads to free users this week, just as Anthropic’s ads had warned.
As a result, Claude’s app is gaining more attention than it did when it first debuted on mobile.
The consumer-focused AI app arrived on iOS in May 2024 to a fairly tepid reception. ChatGPT had beaten it to market on mobile devices and had grown to nearly half a million installs in its first five days. By comparison, Claude had only pulled in 157,000 total global downloads within its first week and didn’t reach a rank higher than No. 55 on the U.S. App Store.
Globally, Claude saw some gains this past week, too. Overall worldwide downloads of Claude across both the App Store and Google Play grew 15% from Sunday to Tuesday versus last Thursday to Saturday. However, this was less than half the gains seen in the U.S., Appfigures noted.
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Tech
India partners with Alibaba.com for export push despite past China tech bans
India’s government has partnered with China’s Alibaba.com on an export-focused program aimed at helping startups and small businesses reach overseas buyers. The move highlights New Delhi’s selective engagement with Chinese-linked tech platforms years after it imposed sweeping bans on consumer apps and games.
This week, the Indian government’s Startup India initiative announced the collaboration with Alibaba.com to identify and support Indian startups that can help onboard and scale Indian exporters on the group’s global B2B platform. The program offers commissions and technical support to those startups to assist small manufacturers and traders in reaching overseas markets.
The new partnership arrives after years of strained India–China relations. New Delhi banned dozens of Chinese-linked apps in 2020 following a deadly border clash, including major platforms such as TikTok, PUBG Mobile, and AliExpress, an e-commerce app operated by Alibaba Group. Those restrictions remain in place, making the Indian government’s public collaboration with Alibaba’s export-focused platform a carefully circumscribed form of engagement rather than a broader policy reset.
India’s export ambitions are closely tied to its small businesses and the platforms they use to reach overseas markets. Micro, small, and medium enterprises account for nearly half of the country’s exports and about 31% of GDP, according to the Indian government’s latest Economic Survey, underlining why New Delhi has focused on expanding digital market access for smaller firms through global B2B channels, including Alibaba.com.
Alibaba.com’s B2B platform connects more than 50 million active buyers across over 200 countries and regions, said Rocky Lu, head of India business at the company.
“Alibaba.com has been active in India for over two decades, and we remain dedicated to our core mission of empowering MSMEs to scale their businesses globally,” Lu told TechCrunch. “Our focus continues to be on leveraging our digital infrastructure to help ‘Made in India’ products reach an international audience through digital transformation.”
Lu did not confirm whether the Startup India initiative marks Alibaba.com’s first direct partnership with India’s federal government since 2020. He said, however, that the company has “maintained a consistent cadence of engagement with various government and semi-government bodies integral to the Indian export ecosystem,” including through digital training programs for MSMEs and collaborations with export promotion councils.
The partnership reflects India’s differentiated approach toward China, maintaining restrictions in strategic and security-sensitive sectors while allowing economic engagement where there is clear benefit, said Kazim Rizvi, founding director of the New Delhi-based public policy think tank The Dialogue.
“Going forward, regulatory clarity will be important,” Rizvi told TechCrunch. “Predictable policy environments will help ensure that startups feel confident participating in such initiatives.”
The Indian government seems to be drawing a distinction between export-focused platforms and consumer-facing Chinese apps, said George Chen, partner and co-chair of the digital practice at The Asia Group, a Washington-based consultancy that advises companies on policy and geopolitical risks across Asia. Chen, who previously served as a regional public policy director at Meta, said New Delhi sees value in Alibaba’s role in supporting B2B exports, particularly given the platform’s reach in markets such as Africa, which could help Indian exporters diversify their global sales.
India appears to be drawing lessons from China’s approach to digital platforms, Chen told TechCrunch.
“China bans foreign apps like Facebook and Instagram for Chinese individual users but still allows Facebook and Google to do business with Chinese companies, especially exporters who rely on those platforms to sell products abroad,” Chen said.
The Startup India collaboration follows other recent steps by Alibaba.com to expand export-focused services in India. In June 2025, the company launched its Trade Assurance program in the country, aimed at helping Indian small and medium-sized exporters manage risks in cross-border transactions through payment protection and dispute-resolution tools.
The developments also come as India and China show tentative signs of improved engagement in multilateral technology forums, with Chinese representatives expected to attend the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi next week. Indian officials, however, have not indicated any change to restrictions on Chinese consumer technology platforms.
The Indian commerce ministry did not respond to a request for comments.
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