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 Mountain View, California, Nuro to deploy its autonomous vehicles on public streets to make commercial deliveries.
“The issuance of the first deployment permit is an important milestone in the evolution of self-driving vehicles in California,” DMV Director Steve Gordon said in a statement. “We will continue to keep the safety of the motoring public in mind as this technology develops.”
In a blog post, David Estrada, Nuro’s Chief Legal and Policy Officer said, “We have extensively tested our self-driving technology and built a track record of safe operations over the past four years.”
Nuro said it will announce a delivery partner shortly, and plans to deploy its fleet of Toyota Prius modified vehicles “in full autonomous mode” in two southern Bay Area counties, followed by the launch of its specially designed R2. electric vehicles.
The R2 is a small, box-like vehicle that can only travel 40 mph, with no steering wheel in it and only room for packages. You are only allowed to drive on certain streets and in good weather.
Nuro has been authorized to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in them since 2017, the DMV said, and was approved for fully self-driving test drives in April.
“Driverless delivery will have a major impact on Californians in the coming years,” Estrada said in the blog post. “A parent in Mountain View can have the week’s groceries delivered without the family in the car. A grandmother in East Palo Alto gets access to affordable home delivery of everyday essentials. And a young woman in San Jose will have the opportunity to embark on a new career and oversee the operation of a driverless fleet that will deliver on those promises. ”
Nuro was founded in 2016 by former engineers at Google’s Waymo. According to Crunchbase, it has raised $ 1.5 billion in funding, including $ 940 million from SoftBank’s 9984,
Vision Fund.