Robots Can Now Deliver Your 7-Eleven Slurpee

AI, self-driving and robotics company Nuro is partnering with convenience store 7-Eleven for autonomous deliveries through its 7NOW delivery app. The pilot program will start in Mountain View, California, where many pilot programs find their legs. Nuro says it will first use its fleet ofToyota Priusvehicles to deliver, followed by its custom designed R2 autonomous vehicles.

This partnership makes perfect sense for several reasons. First, 7-Eleven is trying to shrink its own carbon footprint byinstalling at least 500 DC chargersat its locations. Second, Nuro has already been testing this operation withDomino's Pizza delivery dronesin Houston. And like the rest of the driverless testers including Cruise, Waymo, Zoox and others, it's beentesting in California too.

According to the announcement on its blog, Nuro has always "wanted to think beyond making cars that could drive themselves. Instead, we wanted to challenge the assumptions around how and why we all use vehicles in the first place. Our goal was to transform the way everyone gets access to the things they need - allowing people to remain safely at home while their groceries, medicines, and packages are brought to them."

That safely at home part has taken on a particularly poignant meaning since the Covid pandemic struck the globe. Nuro says that it wanted to build the vehicle, but that it also wanted to be part of the framework to make these things legal on public roads.