The rollout of the R2 vehicle will take place in Houston, with plans for it to deliver items like pizza and groceries.
The R2, which Nuro describes as an “electric-powered delivery robot,” is designed to make short trips and will be restricted to pre-mapped neighborhood streets. Nuro told NHTSA in its October 2018 petition that the R2 vehicles will at all times be monitored by remote human operators who can take over driving control if needed.
The approval followed three years of talks between the government and Nuro. U.S. lawmakers have spent years trying to overhaul federal laws to speed deployment of self-driving vehicles. The agency said it issued the approval with such exemptions, the first time it ever approved a petition to allow deployment of automated driving systems without meeting all existing U.S. auto safety standards. NHTSA said as a condition of its approval it would require “greater oversight of the R2 than typical for an exempt vehicle” including “required outreach to the communities where the R2 will be deployed.
Because the R2 is classified as a low-speed neighborhood vehicle, it does not need to meet all safety requirements of traditional vehicles.
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