Autonomous delivery startup Nuro said on Thursday it would invest US$40 million to set up its first manufacturing and testing facilities in the United States, as it aims to ramp up the production of its own self-driving vehicles.Nuro vehicles are already making deliveries for U.S. supermarket operator Kroger Co and Domino's Pizza Inc in the Houston area.
"Building on our tremendous momentum—including strategic partnerships with industry leaders such as Domino's, Kroger, and FedEx and operations in three states—we are now able to invest in the infrastructure to build tens of thousands of robots," said Jiajun Zhu, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nuro, in a statement.
Nuro, whose R2 unit has no pedals or steering wheel and only room for packages, said in November it had raised US$500 million as demand for online orders surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.