Jul 29, 2020

Auro Robotics, an autonomous campus shuttle service, has raised $2 million in a funding round that was led by Motus Ventures along with Rothenberg Ventures. The startup will now use the funding to roll out autonomous campus shuttle services at a major American universities, marking one of the most advanced deployments of self-driving cars to date. ADVERTISEMENT Founded in 2013 by Nalin Gupta, Jit Ray Chowdhury and Srinivas Reddy, Auro Robotics is a California-based startup which graduated from CMU’s Robotics Institute, IIT Kharagpur Robotics Research Group, and Y-Combinator. Jim DiSanto, managing partner at Motus Ventures, said, “Private campuses are an ideal springboard toward a world of fully automated vehicles. Operating at lower speeds, free of complex government regulations, with the right technologies we can go completely driverless today versus in nine years, as projected for public transportation. We’ve seen strong demand for around-the-clock autonomous shuttle services on college and corporate campuses, military bases and retirement communities, and Auro Robotics is in a strong position to lead the way in unlocking the market.” The company provides proprietary software specific to the unique needs of the private campus environment, to ensure safe and reliable autonomous transportation that promises to reduce parking congestion, facilitate mobility, improve campus security. It combines vehicles and a software platform to overcome challenges of maneuvering safely among erratic traffic flow, heavy crowds, bad weather, and imprecise GPS. There is also a mobile application tuned for on-demand shuttle scheduling and tracking, as well as cloud-based fleet management and scheduling software. Nalin Gupta, CEO of Auro Robotics, said, “The time is now for self-driving shuttles. Motus Ventures provides us with unparalleled industry expertise and connections to help us scale autonomy in the automotive market right away. With their help, we will apply ongoing technology advancements to bring the extensive benefits of self-driving transportation to many more campuses and beyond.” Share this: