Nuro’s first generation autonomous shuttle prototype R1 has been added to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as part of Earth Day 2023.
The R1 was introduced in 2018 and was built to carry not passengers but goods. It gave Nuro the ability to see how the vehicle works on real roads and how future vehicles would need additional safety elements than a standard passenger vehicle.
Nuro has since rolled out its R2, its third-generation vehicle that is designed to reduce emissions and improve cargo deliveries in urban environments.
The R1 will play a key role in helping document the history of robot development in the U.S., said Carlene Stephens, curator for Smithsonian’s Division of Work and Industry.
“As part of the Smithsonian’s collection, R1 is the latest in a long line of wheeled robots, a history that we can trace back hundreds of years to mechanical automatons,” Stephens said. “The donation of the R1 prototype not only helps us document the more recent history of that robot development, but also offers a glimpse of what today’s ideas about the future of sustainability and mobility might be.”
Additionally, it shows the directions new technologies can take given the first self-driving cars were imagined about 20 years ago for moving passengers, Stephens said.