Nuro, the autonomous vehicle startup, has been granted approval by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test its third-generation R3 driverless delivery vehicle in four Bay Area cities. This approval comes as a positive boost for Nuro, following some setbacks and financial struggles.
The approved geographic area for testing includes Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Menlo Park. Nuro’s vehicles, designed exclusively for transporting goods, are equipped with temperature-controlled storage units. They resemble large sidewalk delivery robots, lacking seats, windows, steering wheels, and pedals. While they operate on public roads, their purpose is limited to delivering goods and not carrying passengers.
According to Dave Ferguson, co-founder of Nuro, this expanded testing area could potentially become the third largest deployment of fully driverless vehicles in the United States, after Waymo. Ferguson also mentioned that Cruise might have had a larger deployment before halting its fleet last year.
In addition to their testing efforts, Nuro has a 10-year commercial agreement with Uber Eats. They have been experimenting with third-party vehicles as part of their partnership.
Nuro had originally announced its R3 vehicle a few years ago but decided to pause its manufacturing plans last year. Now, with the approval to test their driverless delivery vehicle in the Bay Area, Nuro is set to continue pushing boundaries in the autonomous delivery industry.