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Startup
Zaker Adham
03 September 2024
28 July 2024
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Zaker Adham
Summary
Summary
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has granted Nuro permission to test its latest R3 autonomous delivery vehicle in four Bay Area cities. This approval marks a significant milestone for the startup, which has faced financial challenges and setbacks.
Nuro can now test its driverless delivery vehicles in Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Menlo Park. Designed solely for transporting goods, Nuro's vehicles lack seats, windows, steering wheels, and pedals, resembling large sidewalk delivery robots with temperature-controlled storage for food.
This expanded testing area will be one of the largest deployments of fully driverless vehicles in the U.S., according to Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson. He mentioned that Cruise previously had a more extensive deployment before halting its fleet last year.
Nuro also maintains a 10-year commercial partnership with Uber Eats, utilizing third-party vehicles for testing. Although Nuro had planned a significant manufacturing push with Chinese electric car maker BYD, financial constraints forced the startup to pause this initiative. After restructuring and two rounds of layoffs, Nuro has concentrated on refining its autonomous technology.
Ferguson revealed that Nuro is not planning to resume large-scale manufacturing or commercial operations immediately. Instead, the focus is on testing and validating its new AI architecture, showing promising progress.
"We've significantly accelerated our autonomy progress," Ferguson stated. "Our software and hardware, including the sensing and computing tied to our autonomy software in a Level 4 setting, have advanced considerably."
Nuro has been testing the R3’s new hardware and software on a fleet of retrofitted Toyota Priuses and conducting deliveries for Uber Eats. Despite halting the BYD manufacturing agreement, Nuro acquired a few dozen R3s from the EV maker, planning to deploy them in the Bay Area and Houston.
Uber expects to start using the R3 for deliveries this fall, according to a spokesperson. The R3 can drive up to 45 miles per hour, compared to the R2’s 25 mph, enabling more extensive and efficient autonomous testing and deployment.
Improvements in AI have allowed Nuro to consolidate tasks like mapping, localization, perception, prediction, and planning into one or two foundational AI models, enhancing performance and efficiency.
While large-scale manufacturing isn't on the immediate horizon, Nuro is poised for future scaling. Ferguson acknowledged potential tariff issues with BYD-manufactured vehicles but expressed overall satisfaction with the partnership.
Meanwhile, Nuro remains focused on perfecting its technology and maximizing its Uber Eats deliveries. The company is also exploring new market opportunities beyond autonomous delivery.
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