Hardware Podcasts

Nuro navigates to fully autonomous driving

The Robot Report Podcast · 27 Nov 2024 · 44m

What this episode covers

Andrew Clare, CTO of Nuro, explains the company's pivot from solely operating autonomous delivery vehicles to licensing its 'Nuro Driver' technology to automotive OEMs and mobility providers. He details the technical differences between urban and highway driving, emphasizing that highway autonomy requires long-range perception and rapid reaction to off-nominal events, whereas urban driving demands handling complex dynamic behaviors like pedestrians and cyclists. Clare highlights Nuro's safety culture, its federal exemption for occupantless vehicles, and its redundant sensor stack of LiDAR, camera, and radar, while clarifying that the company's North Star remains Level 4 autonomy rather than pursuing unrestricted Level 5.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Nuro, NVIDIA, ARM, Ike, Waymo, MIT CSAIL
Products
Nuro Driver
Chips
Thor

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • How I Built This · 39m

    HIBT Lab! Nuro: Dave Ferguson

    Dave Ferguson, co-founder of Nuro, explains how he and co-founder Jia Zhu pivoted from Google's self-driving car project to build autonomous vehicles designed exclusively for goods delivery. Ferguson details the company's evolution from a garage startup to scaling production with partner BYD, highlighting the design of the R1 and R2 vehicles and the strategic decision to remove passenger constraints to improve safety and efficiency. The episode covers Nuro's pilot partnerships with Kroger and Domino's Pizza, the regulatory exemptions required for their zero-occupant vehicles, and the operational challenges of scaling manufacturing and autonomy technology in a challenging funding environment.

    Starting a product companyIndustrial & consumer product design
    9 chapters

  • Moore's Lobby · 43m

    Ep. 33 | From Autonomous Golf Carts to Semis: The Journey to the Self-Driving Truck

    Brandon Moak, CTO and co-founder of Embark Trucks, explains how he and co-founder Alex Rodrigues scaled an autonomous driving system from a student golf cart project to a $5 billion public company. Moak details the technical stack, including the fusion of LIDAR, radar, and cameras, and the strategic decision to focus on hub-to-hub highway trucking to avoid the complexity of urban passenger vehicles. He discusses the operational challenges of scaling, including adapting to COVID-19 restrictions and mitigating chip shortages through risk-buying, while emphasizing Embark's safety-first approach and software-as-a-service business model.

    Robotics & autonomySensors & measurement in products
    6 chapters

  • How I Built This · 40m

    When trucks drive themselves with Chris Urmson of Aurora

    Chris Urmson, founder of Aurora, discusses his journey from the DARPA Grand Challenges to leading Google's self-driving car project and finally launching Aurora to automate long-haul trucking. He explains Aurora's 'First Light' LIDAR technology, the distinction between Level 2 assistance and Level 4 autonomy, and the company's strategy of selling an autonomous driving system rather than building vehicles. Urmson outlines the safety case, regulatory engagement, and the phased rollout plan for driverless trucks on specific US freight corridors.

    Starting a product companyMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    6 chapters

  • Robot Talk · 34m

    Episode Eleven – Self-Driving Cars: behind the wheel

    Dr Richard Hawkins of the University of York and Dr Frederic Labrosse of Aberystwyth University discuss the distinct challenges of autonomous vehicle safety, regulation, and perception. Hawkins explains the difficulty of defining safety cases for AI-driven cars in complex urban environments and the UK's new regulations for automated lane keeping systems. Labrosse contrasts on-road challenges, like plastic bag detection, with off-road issues such as terrain variability and LIDAR sensitivity to grass, highlighting applications in farming, archaeology, and surveying.

    Robotics & autonomySensors & measurement in products
    9 chapters

  • Moore's Lobby · 53m

    Ep. 22 | Cruise's Sr. VP of Engineering, Mo ElShenawy, on Developing Autonomous Vehicles

    Mo ElShenawy, Senior VP of Engineering at Cruise (a GM subsidiary), discusses the engineering challenges of developing fully autonomous vehicles (L4/L5). He explains why Cruise targets San Francisco's complex environment to accelerate learning and details the hardware stack, including LiDAR, radar, and cameras, fused for perception and prediction. ElShenawy emphasizes that because state-of-the-art literature cannot yet solve L4/L5 driving, Cruise is inventing new algorithms and building a massive simulation and data infrastructure to ensure safety and scale.

    AI & machine learningRobotics & autonomy
    6 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by The Robot Report Podcast. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.