7-Eleven and Nuro test out autonomous delivery service in California

7-Eleven has teamed with Nuro to pilot a commercial delivery service using autonomous vehicles in Mountain View, California.

Customers can access this through the convenience store giant’s 7NOW delivery app.

The pilot will initially use Nuro’s self-driving Priuses before moving on to its R2 delivery vehicles.

We're thrilled to announce our newest partnership with a truly iconic brand—@7eleven. This will be the very first commercial autonomous delivery service in California, and we're delighted to make the world's best convenience store even more convenient. https://t.co/pHLDhDLD2e pic.twitter.com/AHkIvzJTZE
— Nuro (@nurobots) December 1, 2021

“We have owned and defined convenience since 1927,” says Raghu Mahadevan, 7‑Eleven Chief Digital Officer.

“Our first foray into autonomous delivery was in 2016 when we became the first retailer in the US to make a drone delivery to a customer’s house. Since then, we haven’t stopped looking for ways to redefine convenience for our customers inside and outside the four walls of our stores.”

“Fast forward to 2021, and we are pushing the boundaries of innovation even further to provide customers with the first commercial autonomous delivery service in California. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.”

“Residents in the state of California – a major hub of innovation – have never been able to experience the commercial delivery of goods by an autonomous vehicle. Nuro is teaming up with 7‑Eleven to change that,” says Jiajun Zhu, Nuro CEO and Co-Founder.

“We’ve always wanted to bring our autonomous delivery to our local community and to our neighbours. We couldn’t be more excited to do this with an iconic neighbourhood store like 7‑Eleven in our hometown, Mountain View.”

Mega funding round

Last month, Nuro announced a $600 million round of funding led by Tiger Global Management.

This pushed its valuation to around $8.6 billion, according to media reports.

There was also participation from Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Gaorong Capital, Google, Kroger, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Woven Capital, and other existing investors as part of the venture’s Series D funding round.

The cash will support the development and deployment of Nuro’s autonomous delivery service across the US.

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