Self-Driving Tech Startup to License System to Automakers

Self-driving startup Nuro will start licensing its tech to automakers and mobility providers.

The Silicon Valley company will make the Nuro Driver available in a move that marks a significant change in strategy.

The decision could see the tech deployed in a variety of use cases, stretching from passenger cars and ride-hailing taxis to delivery bots and is being hailed by the company as a major expansion of its business model.

But after a difficult couple of years, which have involved two rounds of job losses involving hundreds of people, a restructuring plan and Nuro pulling back from the expensive planned development of its R3 delivery vehicle with Chinese firm BYD, the move may be viewed by some as being born of financial prudence. 

The company, however, claims it is in a healthy position.

Previously, Nuro’s focus had been on developing and delivering autonomous delivery robots, and it had made significant progress in this area, signing deals with Uber Eats and FedEx, among others.

But now it feels its tech is mature enough to be used elsewhere, including in passenger vehicles that offer automation ranging from Level 2 to Level 4, as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers. While the former covers a number of driver assistance features, the latter is considered as when a vehicle is in control of the driving in a specific operational area.

Related:Self-Driving Company Nuro Cuts Jobs, Stalls Commercialization

The Nuro Driver is an autonomous driving system (ADS), powered by Nvidia’s Drive Thor chip and Arm’s Neoverse CPU, that blends automotive-grade hardware with AI-powered self-driving software and will be offered alongside a platform of development tools for the AI. It can be tailored for specific use cases.

Nuro says this leveraging of AI will allow for rapid scaling and safe operation on public roads, both on highways and in urban environments, and points to the firm’s track record of more than one million autonomous miles completed by its fleet of research and development vehicles, with no at-fault accidents, as proof if its reliability.

In addition, the Nuro Driver is backed up with redundant systems and a parallel autonomy stack.

Jiajun Zhu, co-founder and CEO at Nuro, said: “It’s not a question of if but when L4 autonomy will become widespread. We believe Nuro is positioned to be a major contributor to this autonomous future where people and goods mobility are free-flowing.”

Nuro’s pivot follows the likes of the U.K.’s Wayve, which recently announced a partnership with Uber to develop self-driving cars. Although Nuro is far from alone in this space, it points out that it is “commercially independent,” which it hopes may prove appealing to automakers.

Related:Self-Driving Delivery Company Inks Major Virtual Testing Deal

Among the leading companies developing self-driving tech, Waymo is owned by Google parent Alphabet, Zoox by Amazon and Cruise by General Motors.

However, news of Nuro’s business expansion was not accompanied by details of any confirmed partnerships with OEMs yet.