Company
Nuro
Mountain View, CA-based autonomous vehicle company founded in 2016 by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson (both ex-Google self-driving car project).
- Founded
- 2016
- HQ
- Mountain View, CA
- Status
- private
Funding
$2.3B
Models
3
Deployments
2
Patents
1
Overview
Mountain View, CA-based autonomous vehicle company founded in 2016 by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson (both ex-Google self-driving car project). Nuro developed custom autonomous delivery vehicles (R2, R3) and became the first company to receive an NHTSA exemption for a vehicle without human controls. Raised approximately .13B in total funding including 00M Series D. Recently pivoted to licensing autonomy technology, raising 06M for that initiative.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 2 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- 1 incident on file
DEPLOY Intelligence
Market intelligence for physical AI
Analyst-grade signals, competitive tracking, and investment context across the global physical AI landscape. Launching 2026.
Key facts
Funding
~$2.34B raised over 7 rounds; Series E ~$203M at ~$6B valuation (Aug 2025)
Strategic pivot
From own delivery fleet → licensing the 'Nuro Driver' autonomy platform (since 2024)
Robotaxi deal
Uber + Lucid partnership, 20,000+ Lucid-Nuro vehicles planned, first service late 2026
Delivery heritage
R2/R3 delivery bots; past partners Kroger, Walmart, Domino's
Autonomy tiers
Nuro Driver Assist (L2++) and Nuro Driver (L4)
Backers
NVIDIA, Uber, Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Greylock
HQ
Mountain View, CA (founded 2016, Jiajun Zhu & Dave Ferguson)
wikidata
wikipedia
Co-founders
Jiajun Zhu, Dave Ferguson (ex-Google)
Total funding
~.13B
Series D
00M
Products
R2, R3 autonomous delivery vehicles, autonomy licensing
Data & sources
Press releases
3
News coverage
3
Patent documents
1
Web sources
4
11 sources backing this record.View all →
Models (3)
View all models →Previous platform
Nuro Autonomous Prius
Nuro's first-generation autonomous vehicle: a retrofitted Toyota Prius used for early on-road testing and the December 2021 Mountain View supervised delivery pilot (7-Eleven; first autonomous delivery service in California). Superseded by Nuro's purpose-built R-series delivery pods.
Retired
Nuro R3
Nuro's third-generation electric autonomous delivery vehicle, unveiled in January 2022 at CES. The R3 was the first delivery AV equipped with an external front airbag for pedestrian and cyclist protection, and expanded payload capacity to 500 lbs across heated and cooled compartments. Nuro exited consumer fleet operations in September 2024, pivoting to licensing its autonomous driving stack (marketed as 'Nuro Driver') to automakers and mobility-as-a-service providers; the R3 vehicle program was effectively shelved at that time.
Current platform
Nuro R2
Second-generation Nuro autonomous road vehicle. Low-speed automotive form factor, goods-only (no passenger compartment). Deployed in Houston, Mountain View, and Scottsdale. Classified as `av` form factor; regulatory regime is road-vehicle, not sidewalk. Nuro pivoted from first-party delivery to AV technology licensing (the Nuro Driver). Current R2 operations in Mountain View and Houston are Nuro's own R&D fleet validating the Nuro Driver, not customer deployments; the model is classified research to reflect this post-pivot state.
Relationships
Current leadership (4)
- Jiajun Zhu Co-founder & Co-CEOsecondary-verified
- Dave Ferguson Co-founder & Co-CEOsecondary-verified
- Dave Ferguson Co-Founderreported, not verified
- Mike Mancini Chief Financial Officerreported, not verified
Founders (2)
- Jiajun Zhucofounderfounded 2016-06-01
- Dave Fergusoncofounderfounded 2016-06-01
Safety record
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Incidents affecting Nuro (1)
- NHTSA reviews Nuro R2 AV exemption compliance after safety petition (2021)2021-04-01 · Regulatory action
Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Operated deployments (2)
- Nuro R2Houston
- Nuro Autonomous PriusMountain View
Operator customers (1)
- Nuro2 deployments
Brains developed (1)
- Nuro Driverfoundation-model · pilot
Recent coverage
Nuro in third-party press
Autonomous & Self-Driving Vehicle News: Waymo, Teradar, PlusAI, Mobileye, Tesla, Uber, Nuro, Lucid, Stellantis, Wayve, WeRide, Applied Intuition, Roadzen &
TechCrunch Mobility: A new robotaxi scorecard shows China's dominance
Uber, Nuro, and Lucid to Bring Robotaxi Service to Houston in 2027
Peer companies
Supplied by (3)
Compute / semiconductor
- NVIDIAcompany-levelDRIVE Thorsupplies
Batteries
- BYD Company Limitedvia Nuro R3BYD Blade Batterymanufactures-forended
Mechanical / contract manufacturing
- BYD Company Limitedvia Nuro R3R3 vehicle buildmanufactures-for
Inbound supply edges feeding this company directly or via the models it owns. Same source bar as the outbound view (verified against at least two strong sources).
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- growth
- Counterparty risk class
- moderate
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships (2)
- Nuro x Uber x Lucid Robotaxi with Uberdeploymentannouncedreported, not operationally verified
- Lucid Motors x Nuro x Uber Robotaxi with Lucid Motors, Uberdeploymentannouncedreported, not operationally verified
Funding rounds (5)
- Series E2025-08-21
$203M(reported) · $6.0B post
Investors: Uber (strategic) (strategic), NVentures (NVIDIA) (strategic), Baillie Gifford
- Series D2021-11-02
$600M · $8.6B post
Investors: Tiger Global Management (lead), Google (strategic) (strategic), Kroger (strategic), Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, SoftBank Vision Fund
- Series C2020-11-09
$500M · $5.0B post
Investors: T. Rowe Price (lead), Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, SoftBank Vision Fund, Greylock Partners
- Series B2019-02-11
$940M
Investors: SoftBank Vision Fund (lead)
- Series A2018-01-30
$92M(reported)
Investors: Banyan Capital (co_lead), Greylock Partners (co_lead), Gaorong Capital
Regulatory filings (5)
- FMVSS temporary exemption (R2)other · us_nhtsagranted
- CA DMV Driverless Testing Permitother · otheractive
- CA DMV AV Deployment Permitother · otheractive
- CA-DMV-DEPLOY-NURO-2020other · othergranted2020-12-23
- Nuro-2020-02668other · us_nhtsagranted2020-02-11
Patent estate (1)
- US10719805usptograntedassignee
Sources (10)
- Nuro: Company website · https://www.nuro.ai
- Wikipedia: Nuro · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuro
- Why Nuro thinks being a robotaxi ‘second mover’ gives it an advantage · https://www.theverge.com/transportation/936126/nuro-robotaxi-dave-ferguson-interview-uber-lucid-waymo · 2026-05-24T14:21:00.000Z
- Waymo dominates autonomous vehicle registrations as Tesla trails behind · https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/waymo-dominates-texas-autonomous-vehicle-registrations-as-tesla-trails-behind/ · 2026-05-29T00:14:35.000Z
- https://www.nuro.ai/technology
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nuro-expands-autonomous-technology-leadership-with-a-new-business-model-302244438.html
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nuro-goes-fully-driverless-in-three-cities-advances-capabilities-of-the-nuro-driver-302309214.html
- https://www.therobotreport.com/nuro-brings-106m-bolster-licensing-driven-business-model/
- https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nuro-driver/
- https://www.automotivedive.com/news/nuro-plans-license-driver-av-autonomous-driving-technology-automotive-oems/727379/
Market intelligence
Hiring signals
Role composition
Recent openings
- Head of ProductBusiness
Mountain View, California (HQ)
- Chief of Staff, Nuro DriverBusiness
Mountain View, California (HQ)
- Head of Systems EngineeringEngineering
Mountain View, California (HQ)
- Data Scientist InternResearch & R&D
Mountain View, California (HQ)
- Mechanical Engineer, Autonomous VehicleEngineering
Mountain View, California (HQ)
- Staff Software Engineer, RoutingEngineering
Mountain View, California (HQ)
+4 more open roles tracked
Common questions
- What is Nuro?
- Mountain View, CA-based autonomous vehicle company founded in 2016 by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson (both ex-Google self-driving car project). Nuro developed custom autonomous delivery vehicles (R2, R3) and became the first company to receive an NHTSA exemption for a vehicle without human controls. Raised approximately .13B in total funding including 00M Series D. Recently pivoted to licensing autonomy technology, raising 06M for that initiative.
- Where is Nuro based?
- Nuro is based in Mountain View, CA.
- When was Nuro founded?
- Nuro was founded in 2016.
- What does Nuro make?
- Nuro has 3 robot models on the DEPLOY registry: Nuro Autonomous Prius, Nuro R3, Nuro R2 (Nuro builds physical robots).
- Where does Nuro operate robots?
- Nuro operates 2 verified deployments, including at Houston, Mountain View.
- Are there any incidents involving Nuro?
- 1 active incident involving Nuro is on the DEPLOY registry. Each is a sourced, append-only record; retracted incidents are suppressed from this view.
- Is Nuro safe?
- Nuro has 1 active incident on record in the DEPLOY registry. 1 incident on record. Most recent: Apr 2021. Retracted incidents are excluded from this count.
Methodology: Verified · 10 sources (3 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-02
Verification posture
Verified
High confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-07-02
Sources by quality tier
- 3
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
- 3
- primary-company-ir
- Company IR disclosure
- 2
- secondary-industry-publication
- Industry publication
- 1
- knowledge-base
- Knowledge base
- 1
- secondary-trade-publication
- Trade publication
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Nuro.In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Nuro from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Autonomous & Self-Driving Vehicle News: Waymo, Teradar, PlusAI, Mobileye, Tesla, Uber, Nuro, Lucid, Stellantis, Wayve, WeRide, Applied Intuition, Roadzen &
In autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are Waymo, Teradar, PlusAI, Mobileye, Tesla, Uber, Nuro, Lucid, Stellantis, Wayve, WeRide, Applied Intuition, Roadzen and drivebuddyAI.…
TechCrunch Mobility: A new robotaxi scorecard shows China's dominance
Autnmy AI released a Road to Autonomy Index ranking Baidu Apollo Go as the top robotaxi operator ahead of Waymo, with Tesla in fifth; Texas AV tracker shows Waymo at 620 vehicles,…
Uber, Nuro, and Lucid to Bring Robotaxi Service to Houston in 2027
Nuro partnering with Uber and Lucid to launch robotaxi service in Houston in 2027. Nuro providing Level 4 autonomy, Lucid providing EVs, Uber providing ride network.
Uber will bring its premium robotaxi service to Houston in 2027
This will be the second market to have an Uber robotaxi service outfitted with Lucid EVs equipped with a self-driving system from Nuro.
Nuro Expands to Germany, Establishing a European Base for Its Universal Autonomy Platform
Nuro is expanding to Germany, establishing a European base for its universal autonomy platform designed to support deployment across personally owned vehicles, robotaxis, and…
Nuro raises $203 million at a $6 billion valuation
Autonomous delivery robot company Nuro raised $203 million at a $6 billion valuation to advance its AI-first self-driving system.
Uber commits 0bn to robotaxis in strategy shift
FT: Uber committed 0B+ to buying thousands of autonomous vehicles and taking stakes in developers. 12+ AV partnerships. Investing in Rivian, Lucid, Nuro robotaxis.
Nuro receives driverless testing permit ahead of Uber robotaxi launch
Nuro received driverless testing permit. Lucid on track for commercial robotaxi operations late 2026. Nuro co-founder leading the project.
Uber, Nuro, and Lucid to Bring Robotaxi Service to Houston in 2027
Uber, Nuro, and Lucid announced plans to bring robotaxi service to Houston in 2027, deploying 20,000-plus Lucid-Nuro vehicles with Nuro Level 4 autonomy integrated on Lucids…
Lucid, Nuro, and Uber Unveil Global Robotaxi at CES, Announce Autonomous On-Road Testing
Lucid, Nuro, and Uber unveiled a jointly developed robotaxi at CES 2026 and announced autonomous on-road testing.
Nuro Announces 00 Million Financing Round
Nuro raised 00M Series C led by T. Rowe Price for autonomous delivery vehicle development.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/nuro.md
- RSS feed: /companies/nuro/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/24cc7835-a940-4663-a48b-803f6e546dea
- Revision history: /companies/nuro/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
DEPLOY Intelligence Score
47.1/ 100
6-month trend
Analysis
Safety profile within acceptable range for category. Well-capitalized with $2.3B raised and recent funding activity. Deployment footprint remains limited relative to category peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Safety Record
Funding Health
Hiring Signal
IP Activity
Market Presence
Deployment Scale
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
Last computed: Jul 8, 2026
Intelligence layer