Article: What will be the biggest milestone or news for the autonomous vehicles industry in 2022?
Protocol — January 11, 2022
2022 will be the year the autonomous vehicles industry truly gets serious about clean energy and sustainability. Last year, the state of California passed a monumental law — with support from Nuro, environmental advocates and other AV companies — requiring all autonomous vehicles to be electric by 2030, five years ahead of the state's target for traditional vehicles. We will see that future become even more of a reality in 2022.
With transportation continuing to be the leading cause of CO2 emissions, we have an opportunity and an obligation to transition away from using personally owned combustion engine vehicles for running errands to fully electric autonomous vehicles. At Nuro, we are designing and building fleets of 100% battery-electric AVs, and we are continuing to prioritize renewable energy and sustainability, including releasing our first ESG report later this week.
Last year, we also joined with other companies to found the SAVE Coalition, which is dedicated to ensuring AVs are EVs. From production to operation of these vehicles, the biggest milestones of the year will come from companies that demonstrate their full commitment to sustainability through the use of renewable energy.
- Matthew Lipka, Head of Policy, Nuro
Podcast: Autonomy and Electrification Makes Possible
The Road to Autonomy — November 15, 2021
Matthew Lipka, Head Of Policy, Nuro and Bert Kaufman, Head of Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Zoox joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why autonomy and electrification make the future of mobility and delivery possible.
The conversation begins with Matthew and Bert discussing what the SAVE Coalition is and why the coalition was founded. The idea for SAVE was originally hatched at an autonomous vehicle conference in late 2017 and further formulated during a coffee meeting at Philz Coffee in San Mateo, CA between Matthew and Bert.
Both Nuro and Zoox had and still have a unique point of view on autonomy. Both companies along with Local Motors decided not to retrofit a vehicle for autonomy and instead choose to build purpose-built vehicles from the ground up.
We got a unique point of view because we made the deliberate decision to not retrofit.
– Bert Kaufman
When companies choose to build a bespoke vehicle, it creates new opportunities but also unique policy challenges such as updating the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).
If you are rethinking the car then you are not going to be building an internal combustion engine. You are not going to be building a vehicle that is designed just for protecting that those inside. It is also going to be thinking about those outside of the vehicle. There are a lot of opportunities this creates both in the robotaxi as well in the delivery space.
– Matthew Lipka
Read more and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Podcast: Future of Local Commerce
The Road to Autonomy — October 27, 2021
Greg Rogers, Public Policy Manager, Nuro joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the future of local commerce.
The conversation begins with Greg discussing Nuro’s plan for the new manufacturing facility and test track in Las Vegas, Nevada. The facility will employ 250 individuals and generate as much as $2.2 billion in economic benefits for Nevada in the first 10 years.
With the factory being built to manufacture and scale the autonomous delivery robots, Grayson asks Greg what has to be done from a policy perspective to ensure that the company can scale. As Nuro looks at policy, the company was one of the founders of the SAVE Coalition with Zoox and Local Motors.
Often new technologies that are transformational do not look like anything that came before it.
– Greg Rogers
Read more and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Op-Ed: We don’t just need an AV revolution — we need a design evolution.
TechCrunch Opinion — October 1, 2021
Over a century ago, the advent of the internal combustion engine took us out of the age of the horse-drawn carriage and into the age of the automobile. With the horse leaving the equation, vehicle designs started to emerge that were oriented around the comfort and safety of drivers.
Since then, society has come to accept a particular kind of car design: gas-powered, inattentive to pedestrians and other road users, and often driven by a distracted human. Today, mobility is undergoing another major transformation, and we are building what comes next: the fully autonomous electric vehicle.
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) now present a rare opportunity for transformational change by reimagining how vehicles are designed, how they’re used and whom they serve.
To support this transformation, we’re announcing the launch of the Coalition for Safe Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification (SAVE). SAVE’s founding members — Zoox, Nuro and Local Motors — are united around three core principles: building safe automated driving systems, deploying AVs on fully electric platforms and incorporating new vehicle designs that improve mobility and access for all.