Nuro
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Autonomous vehicles |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Founder | Jiajun Zhu, Dave Ferguson |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California , United States |
| Products | Autonomous delivery vehicles (R1, R2, R3) |
Number of employees | Over 55 (from Ike Robotics acquisition) + unspecified existing staff |
Nuro, Inc. is a U.S.-based firm specializing in autonomous vehicle technology, headquartered in Mountain View, California. Established in 2016 by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson—both formerly engineers on Google's autonomous driving initiative Waymo—the company focuses on creating self-driving delivery vehicles and was the pioneer in obtaining an autonomous vehicle exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
History
In 2016, Jiajun Zhu, who served as principal software engineer, and Dave Ferguson, principal machine learning engineer at Waymo, departed to found Nuro. The company introduced its initial product, the electric autonomous delivery vehicle R1, in January 2018 after securing $92 million in funding from investors such as Greylock Partners and Gaorong Capital. The R1 was engineered solely for transporting goods, capable of carrying up to 12 grocery bags.
By June 2018, Nuro had formed a collaboration with Kroger to trial fully driverless grocery deliveries. This pilot began in August in Scottsdale, Arizona, utilizing self-driving Toyota Prius cars before deploying the R1 vehicle in December.
In February 2019, Nuro received a $940 million investment from SoftBank Group, which valued the startup at $2.7 billion. Subsequently, in June 2019, the company partnered with Domino's Pizza to initiate autonomous pizza deliveries later that year in Houston.
The second-generation vehicle, R2, was launched in February 2020 and distinguished by its absence of a steering wheel or pedals. By April 2020, the R2 was operational for delivering medical supplies within California. Nuro further expanded into prescription delivery services through a partnership with CVS Pharmacy in May 2020.
November 2020 saw Nuro securing $500 million in Series C funding led by T. Rowe Price, elevating its valuation to $5 billion. In December of the same year, Nuro acquired Ike Robotics, a startup focused on autonomous trucking, bringing onboard over 55 new employees.
The company revealed its third-generation autonomous vehicle, the R3, in January 2021. Later that year, Nuro invested $40 million toward constructing a manufacturing plant and test track in Nevada and entered into a commercial delivery partnership with 7-Eleven.
In September 2022, Nuro embarked on a decade-long agreement with Uber to provide autonomous food deliveries throughout California and Texas. Despite this growth phase, workforce reductions occurred: a 20% staff cut in November 2022 followed by an additional 30% reduction in May 2023 as the organization refocused on research and development efforts.
In February 2024, Nuro announced a collaboration with Arm Holdings aimed at advancing its third-generation delivery vehicle technology. By July 2025, Nuro joined forces with Uber and Lucid Motors to launch a robotaxi service featuring Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with Nuro Driver systems. This alliance plans to deploy a minimum of 20,000 robotaxis starting in 2026 over a six-year period.