Nuro Inc., a developer of autonomous vehicles and software used for delivering groceries, convenience store goods and pizzas, is shutting down its office in Phoenix and cutting a dozen jobs across three locations.
The Phoenix area was the initial testing site for the company's self-driving technology. Although Nuro ended its pilot program with The Kroger Co. there in 2019, it continued testing its driverless vehicles in the area, a company representative told the Business Journal. It's now decided to end those operations by Oct. 1, according to the representative.
The layoffs will affect workers in Nuro's Phoenix, Houston and Mountain View, California offices.
Three of Nuro's Phoenix employees opted to take severance, two are staying on to help close down operations there and an unspecified number of others are transferring to its Tempe offices, which will remain open, the company representative said. Nuro also cut four jobs in Houston and three in Mountain View.
Tech Crunch previously reported the office closure and layoffs.
The startup has been testing its delivery service in Houston since 2019. Late last year, it started making delivery runs from a 7-Eleven Inc. store near its Mountain View headquarters.
Although the company has frequently touted its four-wheel, street-legal, completely driverless delivery robots, Nuro's service in Texas and California relies on specially equipped Toyota Priuses, a company representative said. Those vehicles are designed to operate autonomously but have a safety driver on board.
For its next step, the company plans to make deliveries with its driverless vehicles, the current version of which is dubbed the R2. That vehicle is designed to be remotely monitored and even steered by Nuro workers. Those employees — who monitor robots in both California and Texas — are based in Nuro's Tempe, Arizona, offices, which it plans to continue operating even after closing its Phoenix operations.
Nuro has already been doing on-road testing of the R2, the representative said. Its layoffs are related to its intended shift to focusing on making deliveries with its driverless vehicles, according to the representative.
The job cuts amount to less than 1% of Nuro's total workforce, according to the representative. The representative declined to say how many employees Nuro now has. But the San Jose Business Journal reported earlier this year the company employed 1,150 workers, 905 of which were based in the Bay Area.
Nuro began delivering groceries in Phoenix and Scottsdale in 2018 in partnership with Kroger Co.'s Fry's Food Stores Inc. The company's Houston program also began via a partnership with Kroger. Since then, the company has teamed up with Walmart Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc. and Domino's Pizza Inc. to make autonomous deliveries on their behalf in the Houston area.
The startup has raised more than $2 billion in funding. Its backers valued it at $8.6 billion as part of a $600 million funding round last fall.
