Prius

Make
Toyota
Segment
Hatchback

AI, self-driving and robotics company Nuro is partnering with convenience store 7-Eleven for autonomous deliveries through its 7NOW delivery app. The pilot program will start in Mountain View, California, where many pilot programs find their legs. Nuro says it will first use its fleet of Toyota Prius vehicles to deliver, followed by its custom designed R2 autonomous vehicles.

This partnership makes perfect sense for several reasons. First, 7-Eleven is trying to shrink its own carbon footprint by installing at least 500 DC chargers at its locations. Second, Nuro has already been testing this operation with Domino's Pizza delivery drones in Houston. And like the rest of the driverless testers including Cruise, Waymo, Zoox and others, it's been testing in California too.

According to the announcement on its blog, Nuro has always "wanted to think beyond making cars that could drive themselves. Instead, we wanted to challenge the assumptions around how and why we all use vehicles in the first place. Our goal was to transform the way everyone gets access to the things they need - allowing people to remain safely at home while their groceries, medicines, and packages are brought to them."

That safely at home part has taken on a particularly poignant meaning since the Covid pandemic struck the globe. Nuro says that it wanted to build the vehicle, but that it also wanted to be part of the framework to make these things legal on public roads.

The company got the first regulatory exemption from NHTSA to operate in the Golden State, and received the first deployment permit for the state for its R2 vehicle, which operates without a driver. The company website states that "it's time for the robots to do the driving."

It also says that it makes it delivery vehicles small on purpose, which helps both passive and active safety measures. It can also park in small spaces. Additionally, Nuro notes that since its vehicles only carry goods, there's no need to sus out the Trolley Problem, which is a series of ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number. If someone was driving, they or the car might save themselves. But with only goods inside, there's no dilemma.