American startup Nuro introduced the third generation of pure electric autonomous delivery vehicles. According to the plan, the vehicle will enter the mass production stage in early 2023. For this autonomous delivery vehicle, Nuro cooperates with the Chinese electric vehicle maker, BYD.
BYD in this collaboration is responsible for the development, testing and manufacturing of the autonomous electric vehicle. In addition, BYD provides the core components of electric vehicles such as batteries, motors and electronic controls. Nuro, on the other hand, provides autonomous vehicle technology, gateway technology, control modules, and sensors.
Vehicle production is carried out by BYD’s factory in China, while the assembly of vehicle power batteries and other spare parts is carried out at BYD’s plant in Lancaster, USA.
This autonomous delivery vehicle is claimed to have higher capabilities and safety than the previous generation. Compared to the previous model, this vehicle has a cargo capacity with more than double the volume. This vehicle is equipped with partitions that can provide dynamic storage space.
In this autonomous vehicle there is a temperature control for items that require special treatment related to temperature. In addition, this vehicle has external airbags and multi-mode sensing, including camera, lidar, and thermal camera to sense the surrounding environment and ensure driving safety. Currently, the vehicle has been tested in Texas, Arizona, and California.
Nuro is a Stratup founded by Zhu Jiajun and Dave Ferguson in 2016, who are former engineers for Google’s self-driving car team. Nuro has been known to focus on developing autonomous cargo vehicles.
