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Extra Crunch roundup: The Nuro EC-1, early-stage growth tactics, understanding Salesforce+
In 2010, Google’s autonomous vehicle project placed self-driving cars on Bay Area streets and freeways, but practical applications were thought to be at least a decade away.
The futurists were right on schedule: In 2020, Mountain View-based Nuro was testing its second-generation R2 robotic vehicle, the first to earn a federal exemption to operate an autonomous vehicle.
But before Nuro could even consider reaching product-market fit, its founders had to overcome technological challenges, win over regulators and strike partnerships with a range of consumer-facing companies.
“Neither JZ nor I think of ourselves as classic entrepreneurs or that starting a company is something we had to do in our lives,” says co-founder Dave Ferguson. “It was much more the result of soul searching and trying to figure out what is the biggest possible impact that we could have.”
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Across four articles, reporter Mark Harris (The Guardian, Wired, MIT Technology Review) explores Nuro’s origins and operations, including the founders’ decision to focus on creating autonomous delivery vehicles instead of entering the passenger EV market.
I’ve lived inside the San Francisco Bay Area bubble for most of my adult life, so it’s interesting to see how people in Houston’s Woodland Heights neighborhood react to seeing Nuro’s R2 delivering pizza and prescriptions on a limited basis.
As one Redditor recently posted in r/houston: “With these self-driving cars, it’s only a matter of time before a country song is written about a guy’s truck leaving him.”
Part 1: How Google’s self-driving car project accidentally spawned its robotic delivery rival
Part 2: Why regulators love Nuro’s self-driving delivery vehicles
Part 3: How Nuro became the robotic face of Domino’s
Part 4: Here’s what the inevitable friendly neighborhood robot invasion looks like
Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch!
Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist
Why fintechs are buying up legacy financial services companies
Image Credits: Peter Dazeley (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Why bother to beat the competition when you can buy them outright?
“It used to be that if you were a fintech startup or, for lack of a better term, a digitally native financial services business, you might be eyeing an acquisition from an incumbent in the industry,” Ryan Lawler writes.
“But lately, fintech upstarts are the ones doing the acquiring.”
Growth tactics that will jump-start your customer base
Image Credits: Jasmin Merdan (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
“With audiences spread out over so many platforms, reaching cult status requires some level of hacking,” Jenny Wang, a principal investor at Neo, writes in a guest column.
Covering everything from collecting user-generated content to launching splashy guerrilla marketing strategies that can take advantage of someone else’s events, she shares several growth tactics for startups, plus the metrics required to track their success.
There could be more to the Salesforce+ video streaming service than meets the eye
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Salesforce announced last week that it plans to launch a video streaming service.
The industry analysts who enterprise reporter Ron Miller interviewed said the initiative has tremendous potential, but one noted that Salesforce will have to dig deep to compete in today’s crowded media landscape.
Salesforce hasn’t released details on the type of programming it plans to offer, but given its vast and diverse customer base, its options are many. Said Brent Leary of CRM Essentials:
“A customer could sponsor a show, advertise a show or possibly collaborate on a show. And have leads generated from the show [which could be] directly tied to the activity from those options and track ROI. And it’s all done on one platform. And the content lives on with ads living on with them.”
More companies should shift to a work-from-home model
Image Credits: Ann Schwede (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Karl Laughton, president and COO of Insightly, offers best practices for companies looking to make the move to a remote model.
“Employers are at a crucial crossroads when it comes to deciding where and how to let employers do their jobs,” he writes in a guest column. “There are those who will adopt the work-from-anywhere model and those who resist it.
“Those who resist it will likely struggle to keep employees.”
Early-stage benchmarks for young cybersecurity companies
Image Credits: Getty Images under a Olivier Le Moal (opens in a new window) license.
YL Ventures’ Yoav Leitersdorf and Michael Cortez lay out a roadmap for founders of early-stage cybersecurity companies that are heading toward unicorn status.
“The early days of any young startup decide how successful it can be, which is why we’ve developed a focused, value-add program to support cybersecurity founders during this most critical stage and maximize their potential in building market-leading companies,” they write in a guest column.
“It’s never too early to think big, and, with the right support, launch the next industry titan.”
The hyperactive late-stage market should keep the startup investing game afoot
Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)
Alex Wilhelm considers last week’s funding news from Carta, Chime and Discord and noodles on what the recent rounds mean for startups.
“Understanding why investors are so willing to buy minute stakes in dozens of private companies worth billions of dollars is key to grokking the crush of investment we see among younger technology startups.”
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Nuro’s new delivery R2 bot gets the first driverless vehicle exemption from feds
Nuro, the autonomous delivery startup that raised $940 million in financing from SoftBank Vision Fund last year, is the first company to receive a driverless exemption from the federal government.
The exemption granted by the the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is for Nuro’s newest — and until Thursday, unseen — low-speed electric vehicle called the R2 that will be used for local delivery service for restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses. It’s a milestone for Nuro, as well as the autonomous vehicle industry, and signals how the federal government might regulate this technology.
The R2 will soon join Nuro’s fleet of self-driving Prius vehicles in Houston, making deliveries to consumers on public roads, the company said. This deployment follows Nuro’s partnership in 2018 with Kroger to pilot a delivery service in Arizona. The pilot, which initially used Toyota Prius vehicles, transitioned to the R1 delivery bot.
Nuro’s second-generation low-speed delivery vehicle was designed to be unmanned and operates exclusively using an automated driving system. Without a human driver, the vehicle doesn’t need some of the traditional and federally required features found in passenger cars, such as side-view mirrors or a transparent windshield.
“Since this is a low-speed self-driving delivery vehicle, certain features that the Department traditionally required — such as mirrors and windshield for vehicles carrying drivers — no longer make sense,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao said in a statement.
The federal exemption allows the vehicle to operate without three features: side-view mirrors, windshield and a rear-view camera that shuts off when driving forward. This exemption is different from the one that GM is currently pursuing for its self-driving unit Cruise. That vehicle, which is not considered a low-speed vehicle, has a much longer list of exemptions.
The process was lengthy, even for those three exemptions. Nuro has been working with NHTSA for three years and submitted its application for an exemption in October 2018.
“What you have to prove is that even if the exemption is granted the vehicle will be at least as safe as other vehicles that are fully compliant,” Nuro’s chief policy and legal officer David Estrada said.
The new R2 delivery bot has a more narrow vehicle profile and rounded contours where the side mirrors would otherwise be placed. This design feature will create additional room for bicyclists and other “vulnerable road users,” Nuro said.
The R2 is equipped with lidar, radar and cameras to give the “driver” a 360-degree view of its surroundings. However, that required another exemption, Estrada explained. NHTSA’s exemption also allows the R2 to operate its rear-view cameras even as it moves forward. New passenger vehicles must have a backup camera that switches off once the human driver begins moving forward (to avoid distraction). Without a human on-board, those concerns are moot, Nuro argued.
There are conditions to this exemption. Nuro has the exemption for two years on a conditional basis and is required to submit reports on the AV driving system and provide proper notice to communities where the R2 will be deployed. The exemption allows Nuro to produce and deploy no more than 5,000 R2 vehicles during the two-year exemption period.
The R2, which was designed and assembled in the U.S. in partnership with Michigan-based Roush Enterprises, has a more durable custom vehicle body than its predecessor and a pedestrian-protecting front end that absorbs energy and can collapse inward to better protect those outside of the vehicle, according to the company.
The vehicle also has redesigned doors and a larger exterior screen for customers to interact with the vehicle and unlock the storage compartments. It also has 65% more capacity than the R1 and its compartments have temperature control to keep perishable goods fresh, including groceries or meals.
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Bird’s chief legal & policy officer is leaving the company
Bird, the $2.5 billion electric scooter business, is losing its chief legal and policy officer. David Estrada, who was hired last year from Kitty Hawk, is joining another mobility company, SoftBank-backed Nuro.
A spokesperson for Bird tells TechCrunch Estrada is leaving the Santa Monica-based company to be closer to his family. Nuro, for its part, is based in Mountain View, CA.
Bird’s former chief legal officer, David Estrada.
Estrada, who previously oversaw public policy at the electric aircraft company Kitty Hawk as its chief legal officer, has been responsible for Bird’s compliance and government relations efforts as the company scaled to over 100 global cities. Prior to joining Kitty Hawk, Estrada spent nearly two years as Lyft’s vice president of government relations and worked as the legal director for Google X, partnering with states on legislation around autonomous vehicles, Google Glass and drone delivery.
Nuro, founded in June 2016, has emerged as a key player in the rapidly-expanding autonomous delivery sector. The company has attracted a whopping $1.03 billion in venture capital funding to date, according to Pitchbook. SoftBank funneled an astounding $940 million into the business earlier this year at an undisclosed valuation. In addition to SoftBank, Nuro is backed by Greylock and the Chinese venture capital firm Gaorong Capital.
The company has been developing a self-driving stack and combining it with a custom unmanned vehicle designed for last-mile delivery of local goods and services. It began piloting grocery delivery in 2018 in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale.
Bird has overcome a number of unique hurdles with many more afoot, including pushback from local governments who were aggravated by the sudden appearance of hundreds of scooters. At Nuro, Estrada will have the opportunity to focus on the future of unmanned delivery, another sector faced with regulatory challenges and political barriers.
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Early-bird pricing ends tonight for TC Sessions: Mobility 2019
The robotaxi’s blowin’ its horn and zooming autonomously down the home stretch. At 11:59 p.m. (PT) on June 21 — that’s tonight, people — we hit the brakes on early-bird pricing for TC Sessions: Mobility 2019. Don’t miss your chance to join us in San Jose, Calif. on July 10 and save a smooth $100. Get your ticket now.
Innovations across multiple technologies — AI, robotics, electric batteries, digital platforms and manufacturing — are transforming mobility and transportation. Join the leading experts, technologists, founders and investors as they discuss the promise, hype and challenges within this nascent revolution.
More than 1,000 attendees are expected for a program-packed day of speakers, panel discussions, workshops and demos. How packed? Here’s the day’s agenda, plus a sample of just some of the presentations we have lined up:
- Delivering the Future: We’ll talk to Dave Ferguson, co-founder of Nuro, about the self-driving car company’s focused approach to groceries, food and retail goods.
- Intel’s $15 Billion Bet: Intel bought Mobileye two years ago. As co-founder and CEO Amnon Shashua moves toward launching an autonomous vehicle platform in 2021, we’ll speak with him about his overall vision, Mobileye’s future business pursuits and an update on the AV program.
- Scooter Wars: Scooters have taken over cities, and there’s no end in sight. Three leaders on the front lines of this battleground — Scoot’s Katie DeWitt, Tony Ho of Segway-Ninebot and JUMP’s Nick Foley — will discuss what’s next for scooters, shared-model sustainability, unit economics and more.
This TC Session is a stellar networking opportunity, and you’ll have extra help cutting through the noise to make the right connections. We’re talking CrunchMatch, TechCrunch’s free business match-making platform. Easily search for like-minded attendees, send and schedule meetings and make the most of your limited time. Learn how CrunchMatch works here.
Don’t miss your chance to connect with the leading minds and makers of your community at TC Sessions: Mobility 2019 on July 10, in San Jose, Calif. And don’t miss your chance to save $100. Buy your early-bird ticket now before the clock runs out tonight at 11:59 p.m. (PT).
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Mobility? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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