Process, Questions & AI Prep Tips
Aurora Innovation is building the Aurora Driver — an autonomous driving system focused on commercial trucking on highways. Founded by Waymo, Uber ATG, and Tesla Autopilot alumni, Aurora brings exceptional technical pedigree to the most commercially viable AV use case. Engineering interviews are extremely rigorous with deep domain expertise expected in perception, planning, and safety validation.
A 30-minute call about your background in AV engineering, robotics, or related fields and your specific technical expertise.
A domain-specific technical screen covering your area of expertise — perception algorithms, motion planning, simulation, or infrastructure.
A detailed session with a subject matter expert exploring your depth in AV-specific domains.
Design an autonomous trucking system component such as the highway perception system, lane change decision module, or safety management architecture.
A discussion about highway AV safety challenges, how you approach safety validation for a system that operates semi-autonomously on public highways.
Design the highway perception system for a semi-truck that reliably detects objects at 300m range at 70mph.
How would you build a lane change decision system that balances safety, efficiency, and passenger comfort?
Design Aurora's safety management architecture that handles sensor failures gracefully.
How would you build a simulation environment that generates realistic highway traffic scenarios for testing?
Design a map-based localization system that knows the truck's exact lane position on a highway.
How would you implement a following distance control system that adapts to traffic conditions?
Design a data pipeline that collects, labels, and trains perception models from fleet sensor data.
How would you build a SOTIF (Safety of the Intended Functionality) validation framework for highway AV?
Design the Aurora fleet operations platform that monitors 500 autonomous trucks in real time.
Tell me about the most complex safety-critical system you have worked on.
Study highway autonomous driving challenges specifically — they differ significantly from urban AV challenges. Aurora's focus on highways creates a more tractable operational design domain (ODD).
Understand trucking domain specifics including truck dynamics, braking distance at highway speed, blind spots, and how commercial trucking economics drive Aurora's business case.
Review SAE autonomy levels and Aurora's approach to Level 4 autonomy on highways.
Study SOTIF (ISO 21448) — the emerging standard for validating the intended functionality of autonomous systems, not just functional safety (ISO 26262).
Aurora alumni from Waymo, Uber ATG, and Tesla bring very high technical expectations — demonstrate genuine depth, not just surface-level AV knowledge.
AissenceAI provides AI-powered interview coaching tailored specifically to Aurora Innovation's interview process. Practice with realistic mock interviews that mirror Aurora Innovation's 5-round format, get real-time feedback on your coding solutions, and receive personalized tips based on your performance.
Get AI-powered mock interviews, real-time coding assistance, and personalized coaching tailored to Aurora Innovation's interview process.
Start Preparing Free