{"id":823,"date":"2026-05-24T13:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=823"},"modified":"2026-05-24T13:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:36:03","slug":"nuro-robotaxi-dave-ferguson-interview-uber-lucid-waymo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=823","title":{"rendered":"Why Nuro thinks being a robotaxi \u2018second mover\u2019 gives it an advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Waymo is the undisputed leader in the robotaxi space, operating a fleet of over 3,000 driverless cars in at least 10 cities across the US. A number of companies, including Tesla, Zoox, Avride, and Motional, are racing to catch up with the Alphabet-owned firm. But what if being No. 2 was actually better?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Nuro, the delivery robot company created by veterans of Google\u2019s self-driving car project, thinks it has a decent shot at occupying the slot. After pivoting from delivery<\/a> to robotaxis in 2024, Nuro struck a deal with Uber and Lucid<\/a> to deploy tens of thousands of robotaxis all across the US \u2014 netting itself hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from Uber in the process. Nuro plans on launching the service in San Francisco later this year. And earlier this month, it was granted the first of several permits it will need in order to launch that service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It\u2019s almost better for Nuro that Waymo is scaling at the pace that it is, said Dave Ferguson, cofounder and co-CEO of Nuro. Its early successes, as well as its stumbles and missteps, then become fodder for Nuro\u2019s engineers to reassess and reevaluate, with the goal of answering the question: Could we have done better?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

What if being No. 2 was actually better?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThere is a lot of value in this sort of classic second mover perspective,\u201d Ferguson said in a recent interview. \u201cWe have a huge amount of respect for Waymo \u2026 In some of the rare cases where they\u2019re having challenges, [Nuro is] using those to kick the tires on our system and make sure that it would behave in a way that we\u2019re comfortable and proud of as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The fact that Ferguson has respect for Waymo isn\u2019t a surprise. He got his start at Google\u2019s self-driving car project that would go on to become Waymo, along with Nuro cofounder and co-CEO Jiajun Zhu. The two left Google in 2016 to found Nuro<\/a>, first as a robot delivery service, and now as an aspiring robotaxi operator. Nuro also aims to license its autonomous driving technology to outside companies, including car companies that want to use it for advanced driver-assist systems and personally owned autonomous vehicles \u2014 though it has yet to announce any deals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Nuro<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nuro cofounder and co-CEO Dave Ferguson.<\/em><\/figcaption>Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

To be sure, Nuro is late to the robotaxi party. While Nuro was handling groceries, Waymo was handling passengers. But Ferguson argues that Nuro\u2019s technology is easily transferable to robotaxis \u2014 even if its passenger experience is still zero.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That\u2019s where his \u201csecond mover\u201d theory comes into play. Unlike Waymo, which had to discover many operational challenges firsthand, Nuro believes it will benefit from watching the Alphabet-owned company operate a large-scale robotaxi service before fully launching its own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

To that end, Ferguson wants Nuro\u2019s robotaxi service to be broadly useful when it first launches. He suggested that some features, like freeway driving, may arrive later, but that the launch will not follow an ultra-incremental playbook where the company initially handles only certain scenarios before slowly adding more complex ones over time. That said, Nuro doesn\u2019t plan to include \u201cthe entire South Bay on day one,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThe plan is very much on day one for this to be a very useful service,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not going to be only protected intersections, and then slowly we add unprotected \u2026 It\u2019s going to be a very broad [operational design domain] to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Uber-Lucid-Nuro robotaxi service is unique, insofar as it involves three distinct companies: a rideshare network, an automaker, and an autonomous vehicle startup. Under the arrangement, Nuro develops the sensing and compute stack and works closely with Lucid to integrate that technology into the vehicle, the Lucid Gravity SUV<\/a>. The integration happens directly on Lucid\u2019s production line, meaning the vehicles leave the factory already equipped with Level 4 autonomy. Those completed vehicles are then sold to Uber, which becomes the owner and operator of the fleet. The rideshare company will manage the depots and operational infrastructure associated with running the service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Uber will also manage remote assistance for the vehicles, Ferguson said. Remote assistance has come under fire lately, with some members of Congress<\/a> demanding Waymo and others be more forthcoming<\/a> about their use of offsite workers to oversee the vehicles. Ferguson said this has led to the spread of misinformation about companies using remote workers to actively control the robotaxis. What they really do, he said, is answer questions and provide prompts to help the vehicles when they get confused.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThe view that the public probably jumps to when they\u2019re told remote assistance of self-driving vehicles is someone in a dark room driving a car around like they\u2019re playing a video game,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that is pretty far from how remote assistance typically works.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Nuro\u2019s long-term goal is to build the most capable AI driving system possible, with the intention of putting it to work in a variety of ways, including delivery, he said. To that end, Nuro\u2019s longevity in the field ensures that the company can apply the lessons from its older, more rules-based machine learning systems, as well as its current end-to-end learning models that produce a more naturalistic driving style. According to Ferguson, that legacy is critical even as the industry transitions toward more AI-heavy approaches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cYou can think of this as sanity checking to make sure that what we\u2019re doing doesn\u2019t get too close to pedestrians, doesn\u2019t get too close to other vehicles, isn\u2019t violating any traffic rules,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He acknowledged that robotaxis are suffering from a lack of public trust, especially around edge cases and other incidents in which autonomous vehicles block traffic. Nuro intends to follow Waymo\u2019s model of being transparent with some of its driving statistics in the interest of building trust with its customers, Ferguson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThe more evidence we have of Nuro and Uber and Lucid providing a product that is dramatically safer and better for our streets than a human-driven vehicle \u2026 the better that is for everyone,\u201d he said. The company is still trying to \u201cstrike the right balance of how much detail do we provide, such that it\u2019s actually understandable and relatable to the general public.\u201d But Ferguson said he\u2019s confident they\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n