Nuro, an autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV) developer, has received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test its third-generation R3 in four Bay Area cities: Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Menlo Park.

The company also has a 10-year commercial deal with Uber Eats and plans to use the R3 for deliveries this fall (September–December).

The vehicle, designed for goods delivery, features temperature-controlled storage units for food transportation. The R3 can operate up to 45 mph, enabling Level 4 driverless testing and deployments in a wider region (i.e., fully autonomous vehicles limited to specific locations and/or conditions). It utilizes large foundational AI models that perform multiple tasks like mapping, localization, perception, prediction, and planning in one place, combined with a traditional system for real-time validation.

Analyst QuickTake: Today’s approval marks a significant milestone for Nuro after facing setbacks , including pausing commercial operations, layoffs, and financial challenges. With the now-expanded geographical coverage, Nuro represents one of the largest deployments of fully driverless vehicles in the US, second only to Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, which is most deployed for robotaxi operations.