News Summary

US self-driving startup Nuro, backed by NVIDIA, Toyota, and Uber, has begun testing its autonomous vehicles on Tokyo’s streets. This initiative is part of Nuro’s broader goal to launch a robotaxi service in collaboration with Uber and Lucid in San Francisco later this year. The tests in Tokyo present a significant challenge due to the city’s narrow, crowded streets and driving on the left side of the road. Nuro plans to achieve Level 4 autonomy, enabling full self-driving under limited conditions. The company employs a “zero-shot” autonomy approach, which focuses on general driving principles rather than city-specific data. This method allows for quicker adaptation to new environments. Nuro’s ultimate vision is to develop a universal autonomy platform applicable to various applications beyond autonomous rides. Concurrently, Uber aims to deploy up to 100,000 autonomous vehicles, including 20,000 robotaxis, starting in 2027. The collaboration reflects a growing trend towards scaling autonomous vehicle technology across different geographies.