Nuro: Aurora, Hold My Beer

Via Nuro

Autonomous vehicles, otherwise known as AVs, are so hot right now.

First? Amazon, meet Aurora. Aurora, meet Amazon.

Self-driving developer Aurora announced last week it raised a $530 million Sequoia-led Series B (with Amazon jumping in on the action, too).

• Key differentiator: Aurora is building what it calls a “driver” software and hardware stack that it eventually wants to integrate with cars.

Why now? Amazon, which moonlights as a logistics giant, has a vested interest in automated operations and a fleet of delivery vehicles. It’s flirted with lots of autonomous tech, but this is its biggest public move so far.

And second, classic SoftBank

On Monday, SoftBank said it invested nearly $1 billion in Nuro.

Nuro’s vision: It makes small (dare we say cute?) driverless cars for short-haul deliveries, which SoftBank’s betting will reach the market sooner than other types of AVs.

Zoom out: SoftBank, which oversees the world’s biggest tech fund (and it’s not even close), sees robotics/AVs as a key part of its investment portfolio, right up there with AI and IoT devices.