Self-driving startup tackles food deserts

On one side of 19 lanes worth of interstates, freeways, highways and exit ramps sits Houston's Third Ward, a place where fast food joints are plentiful and more than 4 in 10 residents are classified as obese.

One the other side? The nearest supermarket.

As has been the situation in many cities, highway construction — in some cases decades ago — had a side effect: It isolated, even destroyed, neighborhoods. It was one factor that turned the Third Ward into a food desert, an area where a high proportion of residents have limited vehicle availability and trouble accessing markets and fresh food.

If transportation has been part of the problem because a physical barrier prevents residents from getting to supermarkets, technology developers and city officials hope it may be part of a solution.

Since establishing a test bed in Houston last year, self-driving delivery company Nuro has worked with the Houston Food Bank to help residents in the Third Ward and elsewhere in the city access fresh and healthy foods.

"There's a big inequality problem, a big quality-of-life problem, and this is even more salient now given the recent attention we're paying to the legacy of race in our country," said Matthew Lipka, head of policy at Nuro.

Autonomous-vehicle developers have touted their technologies as a powerful new tool for delivering societal benefits, from providing transportation independence for people with disabilities and those who are blind to linking residents of low-income neighborhoods with higher-paying jobs.

Nuro's efforts in a city where there's an eight-year gap in life expectancy between its richest and poorest neighborhoods represent some of the first tangible actions taken by a self-driving tech company to deliver on those promises over the long term.

To be sure, the company's work in Houston has been conducted on a small scale. Between June and August, a spokesperson said, the company delivered hundreds of meals in collaboration with the food bank, using Nuro's test fleet of self-driving Toyota Priuses. Vehicles delivered meals and groceries from the food bank to residents in 30 Houston-area ZIP codes.

That range is substantially beyond the six Houston ZIP codes in which Nuro currently makes deliveries as part of ongoing pilot projects with the Kroger grocery chain and CVS Pharmacy. The company expanded the area because it wanted to address food insecurity in low-income areas as the pandemic heightened the need.

"Working with them helped us provide great consistency at a time when there were so many variables for us and for some other partners," said Harry Hadland, business processing manager at the Houston Food Bank.

"Having a company doing philanthropic activity that wasn't just donating — they were actually devoting resources to meet the need — gave us precedent for how to form these partnerships and it opened our eyes to the possibility that advancements in technology brings."

Other self-driving companies have used their vehicles for similar contributions during the pandemic. For example, Cruise has partnered with Bay Area nonprofits to deliver more than 20,000 meals.

Nuro wants to continue such work over the long haul, and it may be in a unique position to make that happen.

Though Nuro used its Prius fleet in its work with the Houston Food Bank, the company's prototype vehicle, the R2, is purpose-built for delivery applications and has no room for humans — and it's the first AV ever to earn a regulatory exemption from federal motor vehicle safety standards.

Under the exemption, as many as 5,000 R2s could be deployed during a two-year period. While Nuro has no public plans to expand beyond Houston, eventually those vehicles could be used to infuse food deserts with fresh food elsewhere.

Approximately 54.4 million Americans — about 17.7 percent of the total population — live in low-income areas far from supermarkets, according to the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

In cities, that means at least a third of residents in low-income census tracts live at least a half-mile from the nearest supermarket. In rural areas, residents live at least 10 miles away.

Distance is one factor involved in food deserts. Another is access to vehicles. Overall, 9.2 percent of housing units in the U.S. do not have a vehicle, according to the Economic Research Service. With vehicles that travel at 25 mph, Nuro says it can reach 7 million low-income American citizens.

"That's a big number," Lipka said. "It does not solve the whole problem, but we can make a dent. It also reinforces why we are focused in the future on building a vehicle that can go a bit faster."

Currently, Nuro's regulatory exemption caps vehicle speeds at 25 mph. At 45 mph, Lipka says its vehicles could reach twice as many food-desert residents.

Speed may be one hurdle in addressing food insecurity. Convincing low-income residents to pay for delivery services also is a potential barrier.

Because it operates small electric vehicles, Nuro says its deliveries cost less than the $10 to $20 many consumers pay now for grocery delivery. Whether cities might someday subsidize grocery delivery as part of policies supporting public health is unknown.

"There's so many factors that impact livelihood and health, and being able to consistently have access to nutritious food is a big concern for those who are impoverished," Hadland said.

Cognizant of the reputation Silicon Valley companies have for proposing tech-minded solutions for very human challenges, Lipka emphasized that the vehicles are part of an answer to addressing food-insecurity issues, but not a blanket solution unto themselves.

"Sometimes tech companies say every problem can be addressed with technology," he said. "But with partners and community leaders, we can say, 'This is a really serious problem, and what can self-driving vehicles do to help mitigate this issue?' "