MIT Technology Review Subscribe

This autonomous van could move lots of goods—but not a single person

If you’re going to build a self-driving delivery vehicle from scratch, why include space for a dumb human? Well, that’s what Silicon Valley startup Nuro thought.

What is it? A van. That drives itself. And hauls loads. But seriously, it’s designed to specialize in low-speed, local, and last-mile deliveries. And Nuro did decide to scrap human-friendly things like seats to maximize storage space.

Advertisement

Under the hood: The van weighs 1,500 pounds—most of that is battery packs that are hooked up to an electric motor—and uses lidar, cameras, and radar to navigate. The point of its glass windshield? To keep other drivers from freaking out.

This story is only available to subscribers.

Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.

Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in
You’ve read all your free stories.

MIT Technology Review provides an intelligent and independent filter for the flood of information about technology.

Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in

But: Nuro must convince regulators to approve its vehicles for use on the roads. Most states require a safety driver, so a vehicle without a human, or seatbelts, or a steering wheel will need a special exception before it hits the roads. Of course, assuming Nuro takes care of all that, it will still need to find customers willing to have it deliver things.

Want to stay up to date on the future of work? Sign up for our newest newsletter, Clocking In!

This is your last free story.
Sign in Subscribe now

Your daily newsletter about what’s up in emerging technology from MIT Technology Review.

Please, enter a valid email.
Privacy Policy
Submitting...
There was an error submitting the request.
Thanks for signing up!

Our most popular stories

Advertisement