Autonomous driving: California licensed the driverless car’Nuro’ to drive commercially

First commercial unmanned delivery service begins in California, USA.

Robotics startup NURO announced that unmanned delivery service will start from next year as soon as possible.

However, the nuro driverless vehicle is limited to a speed of 56 km/h, and can only be operated in “moderate weather”.

“This first commercial permit is an important milestone in the development of self-driving vehicles in California,” said Steve Gordon, director of the California Department of Transportation.

NURO is a startup started by two former Google engineers, and was funded by Japanese Softbank.

The NURO R2 is capable of autonomous driving without human intervention or control using radar, thermal imaging and 360-degree camera. In addition, the steering wheel, pedals, and side mirrors found in ordinary cars were not installed.

The vehicle is shaped like an egg and is smaller than the average vehicle. The internal sensor allows temperature control to keep food products fresh, and a battery that can be operated all day is also installed.

It is also designed to open the door after arrival when the recipient enters the code provided in advance.

R2 successfully delivered Domino’s Pizza, Kroger and Walmart groceries during a test drive held in Houston, Tessa, USA in February.

Nevertheless, a transport expert said safety issues would continue to arise.

Professor David Bailey of the University of Birmingham argued that “NURO vehicles can only run at up to 56 km/h at’surface distance’, and vehicles smaller than that have to run at only 40 km/h.”

However, despite these limitations, he added, “an important step towards the future of unmanned vehicles.”

In October, in Phoenix, Arizona, the United States, an unmanned taxi service was started as part of the Google Waymo service.

Similar services are in the experimental stage in Shanghai, China, led by Alibaba, and unmanned vehicle operation experiments are expected to continue worldwide.