Self-driving start-ups work to de-scope the autonomous truck

In October 2018, robotics company Nuro and self-driving start-up Ike announced a new kind of partnership in the autonomous truck space, which both hope will accelerate efforts to bring improved safety and efficiency to the highway.

In exchange for an equity stake, Nuro has licensed out its autonomy and infrastructure software to Ike. This frees up resources at the latter to concentrate on systems design, testing, and scaling up a commercial offering. The two companies have much in common: both are populated by veterans of the field, including former engineers from Waymo, Uber and Apple, and both are dedicated to goods transportation.