By Hyunjoo Jin

SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) – Japan Toyota Motor (NYSE 🙂 and Aurora Innovation Inc., a U.S.-based developer of automated driver systems, started testing an autonomous ride-hailing system in Texas. There were two safety operators onboard and there was no passenger.

Toyota’s Sienna Minivans with Aurora’s self-driving technology will be put to the test on Dallas-Fort-Worth roads and suburb streets. This operation also includes stops at an airport.

Startups that create autonomous vehicles are facing pressure to make meaningful revenues from the billions of dollars in engineering investments, however scaling up is difficult because of technological obstacles.

The U.S. company released a statement saying that the route “showcases Aurora’s safety at highway speeds,” which is a key technical difference that allows it prioritize lucrative and popular rides.

Aurora’s rival Waymo charges passengers of its driverless minivans for rides in limited suburban areas in Phoenix, and airport pickups are not available https://www.reuters.com/article/alphabet-waymo-idCNL1N2R80CD.

Waymo stated Monday that it was ready to launch driverless cars in densely populated San Francisco, but did not give a timeline.

Aurora was founded by Chris Urmson (NASDAQ:), who is a former Google self-driving-car project leader that became Waymo. It stated it intends to keep adding cars to the fleet as preparation for commercial launches on ride-hailing services like Uber (NYSE:).

Aurora bought Uber’s autonomous vehicle unit ATG https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-atg-idUKKBN28H2RXin 2020 while the ride-hailing giant had acquired a 26% ownership interest in Aurora.