The startup Nuro is the first company to operate an automated and commercial delivery service in California. The delivery robots of the company founded by two ex-Google employees had already been tested in California in April. Now they have received a commercial license from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The deliveries should 2021 – initially limited to one delivery partner and one city, reports TechCrunch . For these first trips, the specialized R2 robots should not initially be used, but converted, self-driving versions of the Toyota Prius.

In the following months, Nuro also wants to use the R2 bots and deliver for additional partners. It is still unclear in which city and with which company the deliveries will begin – during tests in Texas the R2 delivery van delivered products for Domino’s Pizza and Walmart, among others.

Nuro – Autonomous small delivery van (15 Pictures) The Nuro R2 drives autonomously.

(Image: nuro.ai) R2-Bot manages 40 km / h All Nuro vehicles are only allowed on roads with a maximum speed limit of 56 drive kilometers per hour. The R2 cars manage 40 km / h. In addition, the automated deliveries are initially only allowed in good weather and they are initially only allowed to drive in the counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara. Among other things, Palo Alto and Mountain View are located there, where Nuro’s registered office is located.

The Nuro R2 was built with the Detroit-based auto parts supplier Roush and looks like a scaled-down delivery van. Behind two loading flaps on its side is an air-conditioned space, for example for several shopping bags or boxes.

With the help of radar, thermal imaging and 71 – degree cameras the R2 orients itself on roads. Traditional control elements are missing – the R2 has neither a steering wheel nor pedals.

(dahe)