Nuro has decided to license its Nuro Driver autonomous driving system directly to automakers and mobility providers to “to accelerate autonomous vehicle development and deployment timelines”.
The Nuro Driver is built on Nvidia’s end-to-end safety architecture, which includes Nvidia GPUs for AI training in the cloud and an automotive-grade Nvidia Drive Thor computer running the Nvidia DriveOS operating system inside the vehicle.
The Nuro Driver has demonstrated its reliability and safety in real-world conditions with more than 1 million autonomous miles completed across its fleet of R&D vehicles and zero at-fault incidents.
Jiajun Zhu, cofounder and CEO at Nuro, says: “It’s not a question of if, but when L4 autonomy will become widespread.
“We believe Nuro is positioned to be a major contributor to this autonomous future where people and goods mobility are free-flowing, representing a significant increase in the quality of life for everyone.”
The licensing of the Nuro Driver marks a significant step forward in bringing level 4 vehicles to market, accelerating the adoption of autonomous technology across the transportation industry.
An end-to-end approach with Nvidia Drive
Nuro announced at GTC in March that the Nuro Driver, which enables level 4 autonomous driving for multiple vehicle types, is being built on Nvidia Drive Thor, running on the Nvidia DriveOS operating system for safe, AI-defined autonomous vehicles.
Drive Thor integrates the Nvidia Blackwell architecture, designed for transformer, large language models and generative AI workloads. Nuro also uses Nvidia GPUs for AI training.
Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at Nvidia, says: “Built with Nvidia’s end-to-end safety AV architecture, the Nuro Driver can integrate sensor processing and other safety-critical capabilities, along with AI-driven autonomy, into a single, centralized computing system.
“This enables the reliability and performance needed for safe deployment of autonomous vehicles at scale.”
The next-gen Nuro Driver will include safety features such as microphones for siren detection and systems for removing dirt from sensors as well as redundancy in safety-critical systems.
Advantages of licensing
Nuro’s licensing model will offer automotive manufacturers and mobility companies access to a commercially independent, road-proven platform that can accelerate their autonomous vehicle development and deployment timelines.
With a focus on advancing autonomy, Nuro is poised to help shape the future of transportation by driving industry-wide adoption and commercialization of autonomous technology across a broad range of vehicles and mobility applications.
Test area expansion
Nuro this summer received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test its driverless vehicles based on the Nuro Driver in four San Francisco Bay Area cities: Los Altos, Menlo Park, Mountain View and Palo Alto.
The DMV permit allows Nuro vehicles to travel at any time of the day, as well as in light rain and light to moderate fog conditions.
Nuro is also conducting commercial testing and delivery services in Houston.
