Delivery robot company Nuro won the first federal safety approval for a purpose-built self-driving vehicle, advancing the young company’s plans to cart groceries around neighborhoods and reaching a milestone for the autonomous vehicle industry. The approval indicates that federal regulators at the Department of Transportation think specially built robot cars can safely take to the roads without matching all the design standards for regular vehicles. Many of the existing rules are designed to ensure that the person at the wheel remains safely in control. But Nuro’s vehicle, which it calls R2, won’t need mirrors or a windshield. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said that in the context of a self-driving delivery vehicle, those features “no longer make sense.” The federal approval also carries strict limits. It’s good for only two years, and Nuro’s lightweight robots won’t carry passengers, won’t travel faster than […]