Uber Eats & Nuro Partner up for Ten Years

September 09, 2022 By Awanish Kumar

(Image Credit Google)

Forbes recently reported that Uber struck a decade-long deal with Nuro for food deliveries in Texas and California. The announcement comes after more than four years of negotiations between the two companies. Uber first wanted to use Nuro's vehicles for deliveries in Houston back in 2019. However, those plans never came to fruition. But starting this fall, Uber Eats customers in Texas and California would be able to receive order food, groceries, and other goods deliveries in Nuro's toaster-shaped electric micro-vans, according to Forbes.

About Nuro’s Delivery Vehicle

Nuro is a Softbank-backed startup that develops street-legal autonomous, electric delivery vehicles based in Mountain View, California. Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, two veterans of the Google self-driving car project, founded the company in 2016. It is among the few companies operating fully driverless vehicles on public roads. In addition, Nuro was the first company to get a special exemption from certain federal safety requirements and to charge money for its driverless deliveries in California. Furthermore, Forbes reported that Nuro focuses on relatively low-speed, last-mile delivery services in urban and suburban areas. Nuro

For the partnership with Uber Eats, Nuro will deploy its second-generation R2 vehicles. The second-gen R2 comes with laser lidar sensors, cameras, and radar. It is large enough to house about 24 grocery bags in its compartments and can operate on street roads. But not big enough to fit human passengers or drivers. Therefore, it doesn't have a steering wheel, accelerator, brake pedal, and other conventional controls. In addition, it can travel at a top speed of 45 mph. Thus, it is ideal for residential travel but not for highways. Also, Nuro got the OK from California and the US Transportation Department to operate its vehicles on public roads. Lastly, the second-gen R2 can carry a total weight of 500 pounds.

Nuro and Uber’s Deal

Starting this year, Uber Eats will use Nuro's autonomous electric delivery vehicles in two cities - Mountain View, California, and Houston, Texas. According to Forbes, the vehicles would alert customers when they arrive at their destination. After that, the customers must input a code to open the compartment containing their order. Uber Eats and Nuro Partner

Cosimo Leipold, Nuro's head of partnerships, noted, "Nuro's technology and Uber's scale means they can expand food delivery options from people's favorite local mom-and-pop restaurants to nationwide chains." Unfortunately, neither company revealed the number of vehicles they will use for this program. In addition, it is unclear how many customers will participate in the early tests. As per Forbes' report, Nuro refused to share the financial details of the 10-year deal with Uber Eats. However, both companies did disclose plans to expand the service to other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area in the coming months.

By Awanish Kumar

I keep abreast of the latest technological developments to bring you unfiltered information about gadgets.

Uber Eats & Nuro Partner up for Ten Years

About Nuro’s Delivery Vehicle

Nuro and Uber’s Deal

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