Nuro Delivers a Surprise Comeback

wWelcome to the Ride AI Newsletter, your weekly digest of important events and new developments at the intersection of technology and transportation.

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What You Need to Know Today

Is Nuro gearing up for a comeback? This week the struggling startup—which has been hit by multiple rounds of layoffs and manufacturing delays in recent years—was granted permission by the California DMV to operate autonomous delivery vehicles in four Bay Area cities: Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos and Menlo Park.

US senators are calling on the FTC to investigate automakers for selling their customers’ driving data to insurance brokers.

AV software maker Applied Intuition has closed a $300M secondary deal just four months after it raised a $250M Series E round. The new round, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, continues a hot streak of investment in artificial intelligence and mobility.

Waymo is transporting +200,000 paid passengers per month in driverless vehicles, mostly in California, which represents a remarkable 10x increase in trips in less than a year.

Hospitals in Dublin are testing drone-based medical deliveries with Apian and Wing Aviation.

Chinese automaker Nio confirms it has no plans to develop a robotaxi, ceding the field to competitors like Xpeng and Tesla for now.

WeRide is eyeing new markets, such as Japan and Europe, having already secured permission for its driverless vehicles (which include shuttle buses, street sweepers, robotaxis, and more) in China, the US, Singapore, and the UAE. The Guangzhou-based company is also planning to IPO soon in the US.

Florida is launching AI road detection, gathering data about damage and debris.

Hengqin, an island that is connected by bridge to the southern Chinese gambling hub of Macau, has opened its entire 205-mile road network for driverless car road tests.

Tesla has begun the wide-release rollout of FSD 12.5.1, which Elon Musk promises will require fewer interventions.