The federal government just granted its first driverless car exemption

Image: Nuro Nuro, the self-driving startup founded by two ex-Google engineers, has a new delivery robot. The R2 is the company’s second-generation vehicle, and while it looks similar to the first-generation R1 — egg-shaped, no room for a human driver, objectively cute — there is one important difference: the R2 has been granted a special exemption from federal safety requirements.That may sound dangerous, but it’s actually pretty significant. It gives Nuro permission to