Autonomous driving startup Nuro Inc. has successfully secured $97 million in a new funding round aimed at accelerating its commercialization efforts. The investment round was led by prominent firms including Nvidia Corp. and Uber Technologies Inc., alongside Baillie Gifford and other institutional investors. This recent funding complements a previously announced $106 million in Series E financing from April, elevating Nuro’s valuation to an impressive $6 billion.
Nuro’s flagship offering is the Nuro Driver, a hardware module that can be integrated into vehicles to enable autonomous driving capabilities. Powered by Nvidia’s AGX Thor automobile chip, the system merges a potent graphics card with a central processing unit, along with specialized modules that process data from vehicle cameras. The Nuro Driver system incorporates lidar, radar, and camera technologies, featuring a total of 30 sensors in select configurations. Additionally, it includes an inertial measurement unit, allowing vehicles to accurately monitor their acceleration.
To ensure safe navigation in new areas, Nuro equips its autonomous vehicles with updated maps derived from real-time data collected by their sensors. As a result, the Nuro Driver can efficiently adapt to changes in traffic conditions and other essential environmental factors.
The startup also leverages collected road data to enhance its cloud-based simulation platform, which is instrumental in training its autonomous driving models. This technology allows Nuro to create virtual traffic environments that simulate various road conditions and technical challenges.
This latest investment from Uber comes on the heels of a newly formed partnership between the two companies. Uber intends to roll out up to 20,000 autonomous taxis accessible through its app, all fitted with the Nuro Driver during production. In addition to this, Uber has previously invested $300 million in Lucid Group Inc., the automaker responsible for these taxis.
With this substantial influx of capital, Nuro co-founder and President Dave Ferguson expressed optimism about their growth trajectory: “With this new capital, we’re well-positioned to continue our next phase of growth, which will see us focus on delivering new commercial partnerships to realize autonomy at global scale.”
The introduction of Nuro-powered autonomous vehicles is slated for next year in a major U.S. city, utilizing Lucid Group’s Gravity SUV design, which boasts a range of up to 450 miles per charge. Uber aims to expand this autonomous taxi service into numerous markets in the coming years.
