Nuro Secures Permit for Driverless SUV Testing Amidst Industry Safety Debates

Tech 5 sources 8 articles
Broke: Updated:
Nuro Secures Permit for Driverless SUV Testing Amidst Industry Safety Debates
Photo: Engadget
tech· A press review of 5 outlets

  1. Abuelsamid said there's no readily available safety data for the self-driving vehicle industry at present. However, as far as general safety, he said, "Most AVs tend to drive fairly conservatively and rarely ever directly cause a crash."

    Compare 1 other version
    TechCrunch

    All of the crashes have come while the Avride vehicles were under the supervision of a safety monitor in the driver’s seat. Reached for comment, Avride declined to explain why the safety monitors did not intervene in these crashes. The company pointed out that it reported these crashes to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as required by the agency’s 2021 Standing General Order on automated driving.

  2. Nuro has been granted a permit to begin driverless testing of Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with its autonomous tech on California public roads — vehicles that will eventually be used in Uber’s premium robotaxi service. But the Silicon Valley-based startup, backed by Nvidia and Uber, says it isn’t quite ready to begin.

    Compare 1 other version
    Engadget

    Yesterday as part of its earnings release, Lucid said that it planned to launch the robotaxi service "later this year." The EV maker also revealed that Uber had boosted its funding in the company to $500 million and increased its order from 20,000 to 35,000 vehicles. Before commercial services start, Nuro and Uber will require permits for ride-hailing permit as well as a DMV deployment permit.

  3. Waymo cars got some unwanted attention when they stalled during a San Francisco power outage last year and when they blocked EMS after a mass shooting in Texas. They are also the subject of an investigation into incidents of illegally driving past stopped school buses.

    Compare 1 other version
    TechCrunch

    Waymo is currently being investigated by both NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board for illegal behavior around school buses, and for a January crash in which one of the Alphabet-owned company’s robotaxis struck a child.

  4. It’s not clear that Tesla has figured that out yet. Over the years, there have been hundreds of crashes involving Tesla’s partially autonomous features and dozens of fatalities. But the company has been able to avoid liability, either by settling with victims or convincing courts to dismiss the lawsuits. On its website, Tesla maintains that FSD (Supervised) “requires active driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous.”

    Compare 1 other version
    CNET

    That points to another thing people should know about self-driving cars. They're not all built the same. Tesla, for instance, uses different technologies than other companies, which has led to some unpredictable behavior in its Robotaxi fleet, which still relies on human monitors in many cases.

From the margins

4 details only one outlet reported

Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.

  1. 01 TechCrunch

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into Avride, a robotaxi company that has partnered with Uber, after identifying more than a dozen crashes and one minor injury.

  2. 02 The Verge

    The implication was that once Tesla reached that milestone, the company would flip the switch and all its customer’s would suddenly have access to an unsupervised FSD.

  3. 03 Wired

    By law, autonomous vehicles aren’t legally allowed to carry unaccompanied minors in California. Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car company, doesn’t allow kids under 18 to ride alone anywhere outside of metro Phoenix, Arizona. But that hasn’t stopped some time-strapped parents from using their own accounts to transport their kids to school, extracurricular activities, and even social outings. Some have reported that the lack of drivers makes them feel safer.

  4. 04 CNET

    California's Department of Motor Vehicles is enacting new regulations that mean cars without drivers, such as Tesla Robotaxis and Waymo rideshare cars, will be subject to police ticketing -- even though there's no driver in the car to accept it.

Assembled from 4 corroborated claims drawn from 5 independent outlets. Every passage above is taken verbatim — Dorothy doesn't paraphrase or summarize.

Fact Corroboration

Which sources independently confirm the same facts. Hover a claim to see its sources, or a source to see what it corroborates.

Coverage by Perspective

Consumer
3
Enterprise
4
Culture
1

Source Similarity

Connections show how similarly each outlet covered this story. Thicker lines = more similar framing.

Sources (5)

  • engadget
  • verge
  • wired
  • cnet
  • techcrunch

Original Articles (8)

Enterprise Uber partner Avride is under investigation for self-driving crashes — TechCrunch
Consumer Nuro approved to test its driverless Uber robotaxis on California roads — Engadget
Enterprise Nuro receives driverless testing permit ahead of Uber robotaxi service launch — TechCrunch
Consumer Tesla hits Musk’s threshold for ‘safe unsupervised’ driving — The Verge
Enterprise Uber wants to turn its millions of drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies — TechCrunch
Culture Waymo Is Trying to Crack Down on Solo Kids in Driverless Cars — Wired
Consumer Driverless Cars Will Be Subject to Moving-Violation Tickets in California Soon — CNET
Enterprise Uber taps Hertz to clean, charge, and fix its Lucid Motors robotaxis — TechCrunch