• Nuro, an autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV) startup, has laid off seven of its employees in Houston (Texas) and Mountain View (California) as well as five more at its offices in Phoenix, Arizona.

• This decision came as part of the company’s business strategy development, as it closed four of its locations in Houston and three in Mountain View. The company has also changed its focus primarily to teleoperations in Arizona, resulting in the closure of its operations at the Phoenix Depot.

• As per sources, the company has been behind schedule on several projects in Houston.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Nuro has several partnerships with companies including Kroger (since 2018; last extended in January 2022), Domino’s (June 2019; extended in April 2021), Walmart (December 2019), CVS Pharmacy (May 2020), and FedEx (June 2021) for delivery trials mainly in Houston and also in Scottsdale (Arizona). The company also started a commercial pilot in Mountain View in partnership with 7-Eleven in December 2021. Nuro’s layoffs follow the recent setbacks of droid-based delivery startup Starship Technologies that laid off 11% of its global team including employees in the US.</ul>