Nuro Inc. is the first company approved to operate a driverless delivery business in California.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday approved a license for Nuro, based in Mountain View, California, to deploy its autonomous vehicles on the public highway to make commercial deliveries.
“Issuing the first deployment permit is a significant milestone in the evolution of autonomous vehicles in California,” DMV Director Steve Gordon said in a statement. “We will continue to keep the safety of the automotive public in mind as this technology develops.”
In a blog post, Nuro’s legal and policy director David Estrada said, “We have extensively tested our autonomous driving technology and built a history of safe operations over the past four years.”
Nuro said it will soon announce a delivery partner and intends to roll out its fleet of modified Toyota Prius vehicles “in fully autonomous mode” to two southern counties in the bay area, followed by the launch of its R2 electric vehicles custom designed.
The R2 is a small, box-like vehicle, which can only travel 25 mph, without a steering wheel inside and only has capacity for packages. It will only be allowed to operate on certain streets and in fair weather conditions.
Nuro has been allowed to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver inside since 2017, the DMV said, and in April it was approved to conduct driverless tests.
“Driverless delivery will have a big impact for Californians in the coming years,” Estrada said in the blog post. “A Mountain View parent will be able to receive the groceries of the week without grouping the family in the car. A grandmother in East Palo Alto will have access to an affordable home delivery of basic necessities. And a young woman from San Jose will have the opportunity to start a new career overseeing the operation of a fleet of driverless vehicles that will deliver on those promises. ”
Nuro was founded in 2016 by former Google Waymo engineers. According to Crunchbase, it has raised $ 1.5 billion in funding, including $ 940 million from SoftBank’s 9984,
Vision Fund.