Nuro is an American

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

company based in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

. Founded by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, Nuro develops autonomous delivery vehicles and is the first company to receive an autonomous exemption from the

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes" rela ...

History

The company was founded by engineers of Google's self driving car project,

Waymo Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google. Waymo opera ...

. Zhu served as the principal software engineer and Ferguson joined in 2011 as the principal

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

engineer. Zhu and Ferguson left Waymo in 2016 and founded Nuro that September. Nuro brought its robotic delivery vehicles to market in January 2018 with $92 million in funding from

Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...

and Gaorong Capital. In February 2019 Nuro raised $940 million from

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

, which valued the company at $2.7 billion. Nuro said it would use the funds to expand its delivery service to new areas, add new partners, expand its fleet and grow its business. In September 2019, the company was ranked No.10 on LinkedIn's Top 50 Startups List for 2019. In November 2020, Nuro announced that they raised $500 million in their Series C funding round led by

T. Rowe Price T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is an American publicly owned global investment management firm that offers funds, subadvisory services, separate account management, and retirement plans and services for individuals, institutions, and financial inter ...

, with a post-money valuation of $5 billion. In December 2020, Nuro acquired self-driving trucking startup Ike Robotics. Over 55 Ike employees (including its 3 founders) joined Nuro's staff after acquisition. In August 2021, Nuro announced that it would spend $40 million on the construction of a manufacturing facility and test track for its self-driving robot vehicles, located in southern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. In September 2022,

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

and Nuro Announced 10-year partnership for autonomous food deliveries starting in California and Texas. In November 2022, Nuro announced layoffs of 20% of its staff, or approximately 300 employees.

Partnerships

In June 2018, Nuro announced its first partnership with

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...

to test the fully autonomous delivery of groceries. On June 17, 2019, Nuro announced its partnership with

Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...

. Nuro and Domino's announced that the service would launch in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

later in 2019. The company began prescription delivery through

CVS Pharmacy CVS Pharmacy, Inc. is an American retail corporation. A subsidiary of CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was also known as, and originally named, the Consumer Value Store and was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in ...

in May 2020. In December 2021, Nuro announced a partnership to commercially deliver

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

goods.

Product

Nuro officially launched in January 2018 and revealed its first product, an electric self-driving local commerce delivery vehicle. Known as the R1, it weighs and is just over tall, about half the width of a sedan. This vehicle is designed to carry only cargo, with space for 12 grocery bags in the first model. The pilot launched on August 16, 2018, in Scottsdale, Arizona at a

Fry's Food and Drug Fry's Food and Drug is a chain of supermarkets that has a major presence in the U.S. state of Arizona. Fry's also operates under the banner of ''Fry's Marketplace'', a combination of groceries and general merchandise comparable to a Walmart Supe ...

store. Initially, self-driving

Toyota Prius The is a car built by Toyota which has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door Sedan (automobile), sedan, it has been produced only as ...

cars were used for the pilot. On December 18, 2018, the R1 was officially launched into the pilot. In February 2020, Nuro announced its plans to test R2, the second generation of self-driving vehicles, in Houston, Texas. In April 2020, Nuro announced that the R2 prototype was being used to transport medical supplies around medical facilities in California. The R2 is designed with no steering wheel, side view mirrors, or pedals.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.nuro.ai/ Electric vehicles Emerging technologies Robotics organizations Self-driving car companies

History

Partnerships

Product

See also

References

External links