One of New Zealand’s brightest is looking to be a leading figure in the robotics and self-driving car game. 

Kiwi Dave Ferguson is one of the minds behind Nuro, a US maker of self-driving car technology – a company that just raised US$203 million in a funding round supported by Uber and Nvidia. 

He began his career in self-driving vehicles with Google, working as a principal engineer on the Waymo program before splitting off to begin Nuro. 

Self-driving cars have existed in fiction for decades, but real-life examples are a fairly new example, and although many people are sceptical about using them, Ferguson believes that will change. 

“I think that the safety benefits that we’re going to get, the improvement in access, the sustainability, the economic benefits, the time back, like, it’s going to be an incredible project,” he told Hosking. 

“A pretty incredible part of society long term.” 

“Almost everyone I’ve ever known who has been in a Waymo, which is the only fully self-driving vehicle ... everyone that has been in a Waymo in San Francisco absolutely loves it.” 

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