A US safety regulator said on Thursday it has allowed SoftBank Group-backed autonomous vehicle startup Nuro Inc to temporarily deploy up to 5,000 low-speed electric delivery vehicles without human controls like mirrors and steering wheels.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) approval of a petition by Nuro will allow the privately held robotics company to deploy the “R2,” a delivery vehicle designed to have no human occupants and operate exclusively with an automated driving system.
Automakers must currently meet nearly 75 auto safety standards, many of which were written decades ago with the assumption that a licensed driver would be in control of the vehicle.
