FedEx is expanding its robotics testing to include one of the bigger names in autonomous delivery. The company has struck a multi-year deal with Nuro to test its self-driving delivery vehicles, including for "last-mile" deliveries. The team-up started this April with a Houston-area pilot, but that's likely to expand when Nuro characterized this as a pledge to use driverless vehicles on a "large-scale." This is a big move for Nuro. For FedEx, this could help it manage capacity, tackle less-than-ideal routes and cut costs (which, let's be honest, could involve job cuts). It's also a competitive play -- rivals like UPS are already testing self-driving trucks, and this could help it keep up as the courier business becomes increasingly automated.

Neolix showing its little vans are pretty helpful. When cities are on lockdown and quarantines keep people from going out to do absolutely anything, it quickly makes for a tough situation. Yet, despite the awful consequences of the coronavirus, one Chinese company is showing how technology can make a difference. Neolix, a self-driving delivery vehicle startup in China, has been working overtime to usher more of its autonomous delivery vans onto empty Chinese roads amid quarantines. According to a Bloomberg report on Monday, Chinese companies have booked orders for 200 of the tiny robotic vehicles, including online megaretailers Alibaba and JD.com.

LOS ANGELES - A Silicon Valley startup working on self-driving delivery vehicles on Monday announced nearly a billion dollars in fresh funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund. The $940 million in financing from SoftBank brought the total amount of funding raised by Nuro to more than $1 billion, with investors including Greylock Partners and Gaorong Capital, according to the company. The move comes amid surging interest in robotic delivery from a range of companies from small startups to retail giant Amazon. "We've spent the last two and a half years building an amazing team, launching our first unmanned service, working with incredible partners and creating technology to fundamentally improve our daily lives," Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson said in a release. "This partnership gives us the opportunity to take the next step in realizing our vision for local commerce and the broad application of our technology."

The term "self-driving car" might conjure up images of an autonomous four-door sedan, but self-driving vehicles are likely to take many forms, including shapes that have never before been considered for transportation. Consider the Nuro self-driving delivery vehicle, currently slated to begin public tests this fall with the grocery store Kroger. Nuro's self-driving delivery vehicle has space for groceries, but not for passengers.Nuro and Kroger This vehicle was specifically designed to deliver goods on public roads. So it has a chassis and drivetrain appropriate for the street, but is small and efficient, with no space for passengers. On the other end of the spectrum are self-driving shuttles from companies like Navya and May Mobility.

To further development of self-driving vehicles and other advanced technologies, Hino Motors Ltd. will seek partnerships with overseas firms, according to President Yoshio Shimo. The development drive is part of efforts to address the shortage of drivers in parcel delivery services in Japan, Shimo said in an interview Wednesday with the media. The Toyota Motor Corp. truck subsidiary, which has also studied self-driving technology with domestic rival Isuzu Motors Ltd., will seek alliances with European and other automakers to pursue cutting-edge technologies, Shimo, 58, said. "We won't be able to survive by solely learning from Toyota in the changing commercial vehicle industry," he said. "We must search for new partners as a manufacturer specializing in trucks," he said.