Yesterday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced the issuance of the state’s first autonomous vehicle (AV) license to Nuro, Inc. The deployment permit allows the company to profit from commercial delivery services provided by its fleet of light-duty AVs. Nuro, whose mission is to “accelerate the benefits of robotics for everyday life,” previously held a permit that limited the compensation it could receive while it proved the safety and efficacy of its technology on public roads.
The DMV recounted that Nuro first obtained authority to test AVs on California public roads with a safety driver in 2017. It received a completely driverless testing permit in April 2020, as reported by Law Street Media. At the time, Nuro and Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo LLC were the only two recipients of those permits. Nuro has also tested driverless grocery deliveries in Arizona and Texas.
In order to receive the California deployment permit, Nuro met a series of safety, insurance, and vehicle registration requirements, the DMV’s press release explained. Nuro now has permission to use its AVs for delivery service in parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties on surface streets with speed limits no greater than 35 miles per hour. The vehicles themselves, the press release stated, must weigh less than 10,001 pounds, are limited to 25 miles per hour, and may only operate in fair weather conditions.
DMV Director Steve Gordon commented that “[i]ssuing the first deployment permit is a significant milestone in the evolution of autonomous vehicles in California. We will continue to keep the safety of the motoring public in mind as this technology develops.”
