Nuro’s next-generation Driver delivery vehicle built on Arm IP
Arm is partnering with robot delivery start-up Nuro to drive a scalable approach to the commercialisation of autonomous vehicles with AI built into their foundations.
The multi-year collaboration will see Nuro use Arm’s automotive enhance (AE) technology to develop and scale its next generation Nuro Driver technology – an integrated autonomous driving system that uses AI-first software and custom-built sense and compute hardware.
Nuro was founded in 2016 by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, both former engineers at Google’s self-driving car project. Based at Mountain View in California, its initial focus has been on groceries and food, with primary delivery partners including Domino’s, Chipotle, and Kroger. The next stage is expansion into the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector – autonomous delivery solutions for healthcare items, medicines, and pharmaceutical products.
Being AI-first means Nuro Driver’s perception and behaviour capabilities are learned from data to capture the nuances of the real world and provide a natural driving experience. The resulting autonomy system, which leverages the latest cutting edge research in AI technology, is embedded in an engineered system with rules-based checks to provide further safety guarantees.
This technology is on roads today in two US states delivering Nuro’s first commercial application, local goods delivery. In addition, the Nuro Driver has broad applicability across many use cases and has already been successfully integrated into seven distinct commercial and consumer vehicle platforms.
“Our goal has always been to bring the benefits of autonomous technology to as many people as possible. Building the next generation Nuro Driver on Arm signals that we are moving toward realising that goal,” said Andrew Clare, Nuro’s CTO. “Our AI-first approach to autonomy requires best-in-class compute performance paired with exceptional power efficiency, a combination Arm excels at.”
Nuro is currently leveraging Arm IP across their autonomy stack and plans to build their next-generation Nuro Driver on Arm.
The company selected Arm as its foundational platform of choice because it delivers the safety-enabled, specialised computing capabilities that autonomous applications require, within the space, power and thermal constraints of modern systems.
Together Nuro and Arm plan to build the next generation of autonomous vehicles at scale with platforms like Arm’s AE technology enabling the shift from prototype autonomous systems based on large servers to efficient, automotive grade, safety-certified solutions.
“Where there is AI, there is Arm – and now the AI revolution is delivering game-changing advances in the autonomous sector,” said Dipti Vachani, SVP and GM automotive line of business, Arm. “We are delivering cutting edge, safety-enabled compute platforms with AI capabilities built into them from the ground up, enabling this technology to scale across multiple applications and providers.
“Strategic long-term collaborations like this one between Arm and Nuro will accelerate progress on the journey to an autonomous future, built on Arm.”
