Convenience has become the ultimate commodity. People are either too busy or too lazy to do, buy, and get things themselves. As a result, delivery and shipping services have been undergoing a bit of a reinvention of late. Those who are in served areas can have virtually anything brought to them with a few clicks on their smartphones. But an increase in demand for such deliveries means a commensurate increase for people and resources to get the job done. A new tech startup called Nuro hopes to meet this demand with its small electric self-driving delivery vehicle.
Similar to Toyota’s e-Palette, which is a modular autonomous platform for mobile storefronts or deliveries, Nuro’s vehicle acts as the link between stores and consumers on a local level. Although some companies such as Amazon have explored the use of drones for these types of delivery services, Nuro is staying on the ground and already has a working prototype (internally named R1).
The project, which has raised $92 million in Series A funding over two rounds, is spearheaded by two former Google engineers, Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, who believe shuttling goods rather than people to be a quicker-to-market strategy for Nuro. The R1 has been developed specifically for close-range local commerce, not highway trips, so the radar and lidar are programmed for low-speed interactions. Because no humans are aboard, it also holds the advantage of choosing self-destruction in order to save pede...