This Startup By Two Ex-Googlers Is Building A Self-Driving Car For All Your Local Deliveries
They want to make sure even your local grocery store have a way to get your items to you, without moving a muscle.
A new startup called Nuro, founded by two ex-Google engineers, is working on autonomous vehicles of a different kind. Unlike the rest of the self-driving crowd , the Nuro team don¡¯t want to outfit existing vehicles with the hardware and software needed. Instead, they¡¯re building their vehicle from the ground up.
Images courtesy: Nuro
After all, Nuro isn¡¯t focused on transporting people at all. Instead, they¡¯re focusing on last-mile deliveries. Their vehicle will be slow, local, and will concentrate on getting your laundry or groceries from the neighbourhood store to your home.
The idea here is to save people¡¯s time by automating some of their shopping and errands, while also reducing the possibility of traffic accidents and boosting local businesses at the same time so they can compete with the logistics of bigger brand stores like Amazon..
People these days are more likely to order even everyday items online than ever before, and they¡¯re gradually coming to expect shorter and shorter delivery times. In Nuro¡¯s case, the vehicles are being optimised for just this; aside from storage space and the sensor arrays, there are no steering wheels, pedals, or even seats. The cars are currently being developed to allow remote operation, but the idea is to eventually progress to completely autonomous navigation once the testing phase is complete. Even the software here is built from scratch, optimising everything for a passenger-less goods-only journey.
There are still some details to be worked out, like how customers will receive their deliveries from the car. Nuro¡¯s creators right now suggest an app that will notify you when the vehicle has arrived, maybe even a code that lets you pop open the side hatch to get your items. How do you stop people from stealing stuff? That¡¯s not worked out yet, but they believe there¡¯s an efficient solution out there.
And it helps that the founders, Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, have a lot of experience with self-driving technology. Zhu was a founding engineer in Google¡¯s self-driving team, and Ferguson was one of its lead software developers. Nuro has already raised $92 million in two rounds of funding and is currently discussing partnerships with retailers and delivery providers.
Then again, maybe Amazon themselves will end up buying the startup once its technology is a little further along. Either way, in a few years, you¡¯re probably not going to be meeting delivery boys very often.
