Nuro, a company spun off from Google's self-driving project, abandoned autonomous delivery in 2024. It has instead chosen to enter the robotaxi market. The move is ambitious: a partnership with Uber and Lucid aims to deploy tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles across the United States. However, Waymo leads the sector with over 3,000 driverless cars in at least 10 American cities.
Nuro does not present itself as a direct challenger, but rather adopts a logic of second moverLet the pioneer define the market, then enter with structural advantages—reduced costs, mature technology, and already accounted for others' mistakes. This dynamic is far from new. In fact, it repeats in many digital and physical sectors. For Italian SMEs operating in last-mile logistics or urban transport, the Nuro case offers a concrete strategic perspective.
We of SHM Studio Let's analyze the timeline of this operation, the short-term winners and losers, and the operational implications for Italian companies embracing automation. In particular, we are interested in understanding how the second-mover model can inspire digital and technological positioning choices even outside the automotive sector.
Timeline of a turn: from delivery robot to robotaxi
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