Uber Eats Will Begin Using Nuro Delivery Robots

• Uber Eats will begin using Nuro delivery robots in two cities ahead of a planned wider rollout, part of a 10-year contract signed with the autonomous tech developer.

• Nuro has been testing its R2 robots in real traffic in a number of states, with the driverless robot viewed as an alternative to food and parcel delivery vehicles.

• Nuro's latest delivery robot is 20% smaller than a passenger car and features 27-cubic-foot compartments that can carry almost 500 pounds.

Autonomous tech developer Nuro is teaming up with Uber Eats in a long-awaited partnership that will see the company's latest robot take over the delivery of food to app users. The two companies signed a 10-year contract just a few days ago, paving the way for a wider rollout of Nuro's driverless delivery robots, which have been operating on a limited scale in several cities.

The partnership will kick off slowly, with Nuro deploying its robots to Houston and Mountain View, California, as a start, before the service makes a wider debut in the Bay Area.

The autonomous tech developer was the first company to obtain an autonomous deployment permit from the state of California, and also the first to introduce autonomous vehicle operations to Arizona, California, and Texas.