Nuro announced a pair of developments on Wednesday that set up the well-funded startup for an interesting 2021.

First, the autonomous trucking startup Ike announced that it had been acquired by Nuro. Ike has been closely associated with Nuro since its 2018 founding, licensing Nuro's software and even sharing office space during the company's early days.

While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Nuro was last valued at USD 5 billion with over 600 employees compared to Ike's reported 2019 post-money valuation of around USD 250 million and 60 employees.

Second, Nuro became the first company permitted by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to charge customers for driverless deliveries. The four-year-old startup plans to begin deliveries in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties using Toyota Prius vehicles next year.

Nuro is the only company that develops both autonomous driving software and its own electric autonomous delivery vehicle called the R Series. The company is currently producing the R2, the second-generation of the R Series design.

Nuro is also, by far, the largest and most well-funded company in the last mile delivery automation space with a total of USD 1.5 billion in funding.