Nuro's self-driving vehicle carries packages, not passengers


As Toyota proved by winning Engadget's Best of CES 2018 award for its e-Palette, robotic cars that can deliver things other than humans are coming at us fast. A new startup called Nuro is capitalizing on that idea, but taking a different angle with its self-driving electric van. Rather than carrying things over long distances, the narrow, lightweight vehicles are designed to carry packages, and only packages, on "the last mile" to buyers.

The Nuro vehicles are around the same size as a normal crossover vehicle, but only 3.5 feet wide and just 1,500 pounds, with a 250 pound maximum payload. There's a "windshield" so as not to alarm other drivers, but only space for food, boxes and other things -- not drivers. The interior can be customized for dry-cleaners, florists and other types of businesses. On top is a typical self-driving sensor array with LiDAR, cameras and radar that can guide the vehicle through traffic to its destination.

Nuro seemed to come out of nowhere, but it was started by two former engineers from Google's Waymo self-driving division, Robert Ferguson and Ziajun Zhu. The company has already rounded up $92 million in capital and some of the Bay Area's best engineers.

The fact that Nuro's cars are relatively slow, take up little lane space, and carry no passengers gives the company a competitive leg-up, its founders believe. "For us, there are just some things we don't need to worry about [like passengers]," Ferguson told Bloomberg. "Most of these things sort of drive like my grandma."

Nuro's system is pretty unique, but it has some formidable competition. Automakers like Ford and GM are working on their own self-driving cars for passengers and delivery, and a firm called Starship Technologies is experimenting with sidewalk robotic deliveries. On the same day Nuro launched, another startup called Udelv did the first demonstration of its own delivery vehicle, carrying groceries from a Silicon Valley store to a pair of customers, the Financial Times reports.

Nuro has a permit from the California DMV to test its technology, but still needs a US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) signoff. Once it has that, it will test its technology using six self-driving cars, then apply what it's learned to the prototype vehicles.

via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2DLEurj"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more