On January 12, 2022, local time, the third-generation pure electric driverless delivery vehicle jointly developed and designed by BYD and the American science and technology innovation company Norro (hereinafter referred to as "Nuro") was officially released. The project, which was officially launched in August 2019 and is scheduled to go into mass production in early 2023, will provide smarter and greener delivery services for local consumers.
BYD and Nuro jointly developed and designed the third generation of pure electric driverless delivery vehicles
Founded in Silicon Valley in 2016 by Former Chief Engineers Of Google's autonomous driving team, Nuro, a company focused on developing autonomous trucks and has launched two generations of self-driving delivery vehicles for delivery services in restaurants, grocery stores and other scenarios. In February 2019, Nuro received a US$940 million investment from Japan's SoftBank Group to further expand the coverage of its fleet and distribution services. In November 2021, Nuro announced the completion of a $600 million Series D funding round. That same year, Nuro formed a long-term partnership with FedEx and launched a pilot delivery service with Domino's Pizza in Houston. To date, Nuro has successfully completed pilot automated delivery runs in communities in Texas, Arizona, and California.
The third generation of pure electric driverless delivery vehicles is used for logistics distribution services
As a leader in new energy vehicles, BYD has a deep technical accumulation in the field of electrification technology. In this cooperation, BYD is responsible for vehicle development, vehicle testing and manufacturing, and provides core first-level assembly components such as blade batteries, motors, electronic controls and human-computer interaction. Nuro offers technologies for autonomous driving, gateways, control modules and sensors. The production of the whole vehicle is completed by BYD's Plant in China, and the assembly of vehicle power batteries and autonomous driving parts is completed by BYD's Lancaster plant in the United States.
Relying on the advanced technology of both parties, the third generation of autonomous delivery vehicles has a greater load carrying capacity and higher safety. The new model carries twice as much cargo as the previous model and is equipped with partitions to give users more flexible storage space. The car is also equipped with a temperature-controlled compartment to ensure that the goods are at the right temperature. In addition, it is equipped with external airbags and multi-mode sensing kits, including cameras, lidar and thermal imaging cameras, which can fully perceive the surrounding environment and greatly protect the safety of roads and pedestrians.
The third generation of autonomous delivery vehicles has a greater load carrying capacity
Li Ke, Executive Vice President of BYD Co., Ltd. and President of BYD North America, said: "BYD will use the manufacturing technology of the Lancaster plant in the United States to help Nuro achieve product innovation, and at the same time, create more local jobs. The two companies will jointly develop this transformative autonomous delivery vehicle to bring safer, cleaner and smarter logistics services to the United States. ”
Zhu Jiajun, co-founder and CEO of Nuro, said: "BYD is one of the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturers, and we are delighted to partner with BYD to further accelerate the commercialization of Nuro driverless delivery vehicles. BYD has a global supply chain, and we expect its hardware technology to be part of innovative autonomous vehicles." In the future, the delivery vehicle will operate in specific public road areas in the United States. Through our cooperation with BYD, we plan to promote the mass production of autonomous vehicles and strive to improve road safety, air quality and logistics efficiency. ”
BYD and Nuro work together to continuously meet people's yearning for a better life through technological innovation. The two sides help each other to jointly create a safe, environmentally friendly and convenient distribution method, explore new opportunities in the field of pure electric autonomous driving, and promote the development of green logistics to achieve new breakthroughs.