Asian multinational BYD is working alongside Nuro, a company specializing in robotics development, to build a 100% electric and autonomous delivery vehicle offering services in a sustainable manner.
BYD will be in charge of manufacturing and initial testing by providing the hardware, Blade battery, electric motors, electronic controls and human-machine interaction displays. Nuro’s job will be to integrate technologies like autonomous driving, control modules and sensors.
The combined advanced technology provided by the two partners is expected to result into a car with a higher payload and new safety systems.
According to Nuro Co-Founder and CEO Jiajun Zhu, the partnership’s main focus is to create fully autonomous vehicles exclusively for last-mile transportation, with the goal of improving road safety, air quality and overall access to goods.
For her part, Stella Li, Executive Vice President of BYD, assured that the company will boost the plant’s manufacturing capacity by assembling globally sourced hardware components to support Nuro and generate more jobs.
Prototype Specifications
The vehicle features cameras, radar and LIDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging), a laser-based object measurement and detection system, a hallmark of autonomous cars.
Also, the new BYD and Nuro project will be equipped with an external airbag to preserve the safety of pedestrians around the car.
It will have twice the cargo volume of the current one and modular inserts to customize storage. It will also have compartments for temperature control and transporting cold or hot goods, depending on the need.
BYD’s decision to rely on Nuro’s services is a wise move, since the North American company has already created two generations of autonomous vehicles and has worked with companies such as Domino’s, 7-Eleven and FedEx, among others.
In addition, BYD seeks to strengthen its sustainability policy and thus favor one of its main business objectives, which is the creation of a zero-emission energy ecosystem, comprising affordable solar energy generation, reliable energy storage and first-line electrified transportation.
