Two engineers who used to work at Google — Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu — came out of stealth mode on Tuesday to reveal their start-up's new artificial intelligence powered self-driving car, Nuro R-1.
The company's debut vehicle stands at the same height as a sedan, although half as wide. Its length is similar to that of a Smart car.
Unlike other autonomous vehicles, which focus on ridesharing and trucking, Nuro found its own niche — commercial deliveries. In its website, the creators said the Nuro vehicles are "designed to deliver." The R-1 and its successors should be able to handle all sorts of errands, from dinner to dry-cleaning
According to Ferguson, there are three main reasons they chose to focus on deliveries. One, it was the kind of project that has the potential to reach a lot of people. Second, their mission offered a technical challenge and sustainable model of business. And third, the project could be executed in three to five years.
True to their words, just less than two years after they left Google in mid-2016, they have already released the R-1 prototype to the world. The vehicle runs on the same navigation suites as other autonomous cars — cameras, sensors, and a spinning lidar unit that looks like a handle on the roof.
R-1 was made to move totally without human control — from either the driver or the passenger. It was designed to carry only goods, with several compartments created for all the products people often have delivered — like pizzas, groceries and flowers.
Because the vehicle does not have human passengers or drivers to worry about, its creators say it was built specifically to keep the humans outside much safer than the goods that they carry around.
The R-1 should also help local businesses in making those last-mile deliveries safer and more affordable for both the consumers and the companies.
