Nuro is testing its autonomous vehicle technology on the streets of Tokyo
Nuro, a Silicon Valley-based startup backed by Nvidia, Uber, and Softbank, is testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Japan.
Toyota Prius cars equipped with Nuro’s self-driving software – and driver safety assistants as backup – began testing on public roads in Tokyo last month. This test marks the first overseas expansion of the startup, which developed its business model two years ago.
Nuro said testing in Japan presented many new challenges and different driving styles and rules. For example, cars drive on the left side of the road, and the streets of Tokyo are congested. Road signs and route signs are also different in Japan. The company, which opened offices in Tokyo last August, has not disclosed how many test vehicles it has in its fleet or when it may remove a safety officer from the vehicles.
The company suggested, in a blog post announcing the test in Japan, that there would be an expansion to come.
“Our independent operations in Tokyo are the starting point for the combined benefits of global distribution,” the company wrote.
Nuro, founded in 2016 by early Google self-driving project engineers Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, initially focused on developing and deploying a number of low-speed, on-road bots. Nuro’s pitch and pedigree received the attention of the Softbank Vision Fund, which invested $940 million at the beginning of 2019.
Nuro had a promising start, but development costs and a wave of consolidation forced the company to cut staff and examine its business model. In 2024, it ditched the low-speed bots and decided to offer its technology to car manufacturers and transportation providers, such as ride-hailing and delivery companies.
The company’s autonomous stack is built on an end-to-end AI foundation model that allows the system to learn as it drives, according to Nuro. This AI technique, which it calls “senseless autonomous driving,” allowed Nuro’s software to navigate public streets in Tokyo without prior training on Japanese driving data, the company’s blog said. UK-based Wayve, which recently raised $1.2 billion, has taken a similar approach to end AI in its self-driving software.
Nuro says that this AI method, which is built to know more, does not mean that it ignores security. The company said it conducts closed testing of each new release of its autonomous universal model and tests performance and tests edge cases using simulations. Once the autonomous cars are on the road, they are driven manually while Nuro’s software operates in “shadow mode.” Nuro said the basic AI model generates what the software will do, but the commands are not sent to the vehicle controls.
Nuro evaluates the results to determine if the system is ready to operate independently on public roads.
Nuro has gained some traction with investors with his self-driving software approach. Last year, Nuro raised $203 million in two Series E rounds that included existing backer Baillie Gifford and new investors Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Nvidia, and Pledge Ventures. Uber, which has said it will make a “multi-billion” investment in Nuro as part of a broader deal with electric car maker Lucid, is also involved.
